ohtani's jacket

Cena vs Rene Dupree - Judgment Day 2004 This is the first time I've seen Rene Dupree. I have no idea how good or bad he was usually. Having seen many of the great French heels, he didn't impress in that regard, though I did like his flick of the torso (very Rick Rude/Martel-ish.) Cena's promo was slightly less cringe worthy than the last one, but still a different world from what I like. The match wasn't bad for a midcard level bout. It was highly choreographed and a bit telegraphed at times, but that's what happens when you're working to a script I suppose. As someone else mentioned, I also find it strange how the WWE can look so much like other styles of modern wrestling that are criticised and lambasted yet is somehow championed. The finishing stretches are counterrific the same way that modern New Japan matches are, although in this case there weren't any exciting nearfalls. What's more, I don't think you can argue that the body of the match played any part in the outcome. The bear hug spot was badly worked. Cena didn't time his comeback at all well and they dropped it to head into stretch run and from there it was just button mashing on the controller. It's only 2004 I'm looking at, but I don't see a lot of natural talent from Cena and I don't really see (at this stage) a guy who exhibits the confidence or control that a great worker shows. He's a hard working dude trying his best to stick to the plan. But like I said, Dupree could have been absolutely terrible outside of this and I wouldn't really know. I'd go about ***

I guess so. Portland was also a better territory for tag wrestling than the WWWF.

When I think of J-Rock I think of visual kei -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei which is much more outlandish than Tanahashi. I would argue the thing that people don't get about Tanahashi is that women (including my wife) and even men for that matter find him extremely handsome and that he has an attractiveness that makes him popular. Nobuhiko Takada was similar in the 90s and Jumbo Tsuruta in the 70s.

Maybe Martel was tearing it up in Portland because he was in a hot feud with Rose? Even in that feud he was still a little rough around the edges.

It is tricky, but Tanahashi connects with his audience on a level that not everyone gets. It's like the whole Misawa stoicism thing where you have these fans coming in with their heel fan pro-wrestling fan sensibilities thinking Kawada or Taue are better when just about every guy in Korakuen wanted to be Misawa. Misawa was (to some extent) the epitome of the ideal Japanese male. Similarly, Japanese fans find Tanahashi cool in a way that I can't understand with the air guitar and all that shit. The thing is you don't have to find Tanahashi's air guitar cool (because frankly it's not), but you can't write off the fact that it's over or try to bend it to your will by suggesting ways it could be done better. You just have to accept that it's something from another culture that's slightly foreign; but if you start trying to rate that sort of thing into your list objectively then it's going to be a pretty boring process. I don't really see the need for neutrality. Just a concession that in some cases the fault lies with the viewer and not the product.

Most guys were only on TV a couple of times a year so you tended to see a lot of their showcase signature stuff. In Sarjeant's case there's so few matches available that I'd gladly take more of the same. In terms of being an exhibition or spotfest, it makes a big difference whether it's face vs face or heel vs face, and wrestled at the same weight or at catch weight. The weight class makes a difference too as the lighter weights tend to exhibit their skills more. Which as a Waltonism is otherwise known as "another pure wrestling contest for the grapple fans." The heel vs face matches are easier to get into, but if you watch a whole bunch of those in a row you'd also get bored. The tapings for television would usually present the full range of match styles at any given venue, though there were some towns where the heel cheating was so over that it would happen in multiple matches.

The mini-Adonis, body building brat Johnny England: A heavyweight I've always found a tad overrated, but whom others swear by, the leading heavyweight of his day Wayne Bridges:

That's good to hear, Childs. Here's the mysterious Anglo-Russian grappler Ivan Penzekoff with the vague gimmick and legendary drinking prowess against the aforementioned king of comedy Kevin Conneally. Long time vet and solid pro, The Jamaican Kid Lenny Hurst:

Hmm, just watched a pretty soft Martel/Garea vs. Moondogs match. To be honest, Martel didn't look that flash. Garea I wanted to like such he's a fellow kiwi, but he wrestled like a pansy. It was a shortish title change with pretty awful use of the Southern style tag formula. It seems to me that Martel really grew into a strong wrestler somewhere between here and '84.

Sure, I don't think it's malicious. I just find it a little hard to swallow.

That's if you really feel there are 50 wrestlers better and don't just hate a guy and are trying to prove a point.

I'll go through the boldfaced selections at first and try to do one per day. Cena vs Rey Mysterio - Smackdown 6th November 2003 This was all right. A good, basic sort of match, though nothing really memorable past the week it aired. Cena's promo to start with sucked, but I thought he displayed good intensity after the bell and stood out fairly well for a midcard act. He was a bit too anxious about getting into position and watching him call spots was off putting, but I liked his aggressiveness. It was too short to be much of a bout and not really structured that well other than to give Cena a cheap win, however a decent start to this project. I'd go about **

Tanahashi's strikes have never looked better than in that match. His role seemed to be to bury the hatchet in a tough fought match. It got over pretty well.

The idea that Tanahashi wasn't in the top 50 workers in the world last year is a little hard to swallow. I mean I can understand him not being on someone's list of personal favourite wrestlers, but realistically speaking he would be in the top 50 workers in the world. It would be like leaving Manami Toyota or Shawn Michaels off a 1996 list.

Wayne Bridges vs. Butts Giraud (5/28/80) At first this struck me as pretty odd as Bridges was wrestling this portly, balding Canadian wrestler dressed in gridiron gear. Then I read up on Butts and he turned out to be a pretty interesting dude. It was Giraud and not Quinn who first came over from Canada and started getting on house mics and doing the whole anti-British spiel. A former All-American, he'd wear the helmet and football gear to further antagonise the crowds. You learn something new every day. Quinn was on the same tours and borrowed the act. The angle here was that he'd sent Butts a telegram telling him to finish Bridges off. The match itself wasn't very memorable, but another piece of the puzzle fell together. Tony St Clair vs. Rex Strong (4/10/80) I'm sure I've seen Strong before but I don't remember him looking the way he did. He was kind of like a British Mike Shaw. The crowd loved St. Clair and gave him tremendous support, but he flailed away against Strong with some pretty tame looking strikes. The crowd enjoyed it mind you. Pat Patton vs. Steve Peacock (8/6/80) Peacock got great heat here. The type of Sid Cooper/Jim Breaks heat that performers of his ilk must have been always hoping for. Patton continued to be a fine Kung Fu knock-off. The finish was tremendous as it looked for all money that Peacock had won, but Patton got one of the neater pinning reversals I've seen in a British ring. Definitely the first Peacock match where I've seen the things in him that Regal talks about. Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. King Kong Kirk (8/6/80) Singh had tremendous sideburns here and Kirk's gut looked tremendous with his tights raised up around his waist. The pair clobbered each other for a round or so before Singh got a pinfall and Kirk reacted after the bell by punching him in the back then dropping the elbow on him. That was an automatic DQ and another lost purse for Kirk no doubt. I love the punch to the back spot. It's such a heinous cheap shot as it looks like it could do real damage. Wayne Bridges vs. John Cox (1/3/80) Bit of a sleepy New Year's match. Cox was making his return to television after being off the air for some time and was never going to be much of a match for the world champ. Walton was pushing the 90 day rematch clause with Spiros Arion. They had a match in Digbeth on 1/24 that was possibly a world title match, but it wasn't a television taping. This match had some decent moments, but for a guy who was supposed to be the cream of the crop of British heavyweights Bridges sure had plenty of lacklustre matches. Romany Riley vs. Lenny Hurst (2/13/80) This was an entertaining bout between two solid pros. They deserve a ton of credit for making it memorable as they could have easily gone out there and had a regular sort of a match, but they sensed something in the crowd I supposed and worked a chaotic bout instead. Riley was working as a heel at this stage and I still find it hard to recognise him in the early 80s since he looked almost like a counter culture Bill Walton type in the 70s. He kept attacking Hurst before he'd had an opportunity to get up (a big no no under Lord Mountevans rules.) Well, you don't fuck with Lenny Hurst. He may appear quiet and unassuming, but he stomped the shit out of Riley between rounds and started throwing punches for good measure. Riley responded in kind and referee Joe D'Orazio lost all control of the bout. It was a pretty shocking refereeing performance from him actually from a kayfabe perspective. They pounded away on each other with both men taking a lot of damage, It went on longer than it needed to, but they certainly left an impression.

The Destroyer was a legit household name in Japan as he picked up the language a bit and would appear in television commercials and on comedy variety shows. Plus he worked during the Rikidozan era where television was new, there weren't many channels and wrestling was so in demand as a TV product that there were instances of the same match airing on two different channels at the same time. Bobo was a big star in Japan for reasons you can probably guess.

Ted was getting those wins in '76 because of Bobo. As for the others, look at the guys Baba was tagging with. I've never even heard of some of them.

I wouldn't go that far, though I do appreciate you trying to bring Ted into the discourse! The way I see it, he was a step down from Hansen and above the Steve Williams level.

Does this include tag matches and six-mans? Cagematch has 171 results for Murdoch vs. Inoki. Anyway, I don't think Murdoch ever beat Inoki in a singles match so I'm figuring those wins were in tag matches where Inoki probably didn't eat the pinfall too often. Dick had his spot. It was a good spot, but I don't see a case for him as one of the most important gaijin stars in history. He has longevity with the amount of tours he worked there, but everything he did impact wise was solid not spectacular.

Jimmy, if you can put together a select list of Cena matches in different working situations I will make the time to watch them. Cheers.

It seems kind of a given that Murdoch was bigger in New Japan than All Japan. I don't really get where the idea that he was big in All Japan came from. I also don't really see any reason why Baba would lose to Murdoch in the period that he worked there. Murdoch was on the level of trading wins with Jumbo before Inoki pinched him. Would he have been Hansen if neither of them had jumped? That's the question.

Poor Jerome. I won't potty mouth Takada anymore. I saw him on TV the other day and he hasn't aged so well.

Another under-the-radar favourite of mine, Tarzan Johnny Wilson. He won't look like much at first, but if you've seen the crazy amount that I have you will appreciate his sterling efforts every time out. And because you must see him once, one of the hairiest men to ever wrestle, ladies and gentlemen Little Prince:

Now for a couple of guys who may test the limits of how important personal charisma is for you, but were part of a quartet of hard hitting wrestlers from the 1980s along with Roach and Rudge. The first is Indian star Tiger Dalibar Singh (also known as Gil Singh): And my boy, Ray Steele. If you can get into him then you and I will be wrestling pen friends that's for sure.

You need to watch the Jones vs. Rocco bouts from the 70s at the least. I think they will change your opinion on Rocco slightly. Just don't watch that Bobby Bold Eagle match I wrote about a few moments ago. Some pretty dodgy skill levels there from Rocco.