ohtani's jacket

It's been almost 20 years since this match happened, so I'm trying to keep an open mind. I don't think the divide between lucha fans is as strong as it was at the time (hopefully not), so there's nothing for me to gain from trashing this. The biggest positive was it was two younger stars trying hard to have a dramatic and suspenseful title match. They don't quite get the rhythm right but effort's appreciated. Like a lot of lucha at the time, the match is entirely built around the third caida and they go all out to have a spectacular fall. The enthusiasm outweighs the execution for the most part, but I can understand the excitement over this bout.

I was ready to hate on this, but it was actually pretty good. It's not a sublime Kawada performance. If you're looking for a sublime Kawada performance, you're watching the wrong decade. However, it was perfectly good meathead wrestling. Everything they did was hard-hitting and made sense from one beat to the next. Far better than I expected.

Bob Backlund vs. Bob Orton Jr. (WWF, 6/26/82) This was a fun lumberjack match with Orton doing an excellent job of playing to the cheap seats, but like I said in my previous post, I really wish we'd seen more of this feud. They had a match at MSG in August of '82 that wasn't taped. The August MSG card that was taped featured the excellent Buddy Rose match, so I can't complain too much, but they moved on from this a bit too quickly on television. In fact, the finish sets up a new feud between Orton and a disgustingly roided Ivan Putski.

Bob Backlund vs. Bob Orton Jr. (WWF, 5/22/82) This was a really good match. I wish they'd had a longer feud against each other as they were evenly matched. Orton wasn't the most demonstrative heel in the history of professional wrestling, but he knew how to get under an opponent's skin and he was a proficient stooge and bumper on top of being a competent wrestler. That made him a solid match up for killer Bobby Backlund, who could mow through an opponent if they didn't have their wits about them.

I'm so glad you mentioned his hair! What's up with that?

I don't think I've seen that before. Surely, I'd remember him putting the snake in his mouth. It's from '71 which again points to more lax broadcasting standards.

Bob Backlund vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 10/20/80) Howard Finkel can barely stifle his laughter when Slaughter gets on the house mic and starts singing the Marines Hymn. Backlund sure liked to get his shine at the beginning of a match. Has there ever been a babyface who had a longer shine than Bob Backlund? He's a kick-ass, killer babyface, so it's not terrible to watch, but it's half the match. And when Slaughter takes take over, it becomes a back and forth brawl where the Sarge ends up bleeding. Backlund's feats of strength never cease to amaze. The dude was a freak with that shit. This is good stuff, but when Slaughter gets Backlund in the Cobra Clutch, Skaaland hits Slaughter over the head with a chair. That's some bullshit right there. If heel managers aren't allowed to stay at ringside at MSG then how the hell can Skaaland justify pulling that shit? Not only that, but Backlund gives Slaughter a piledriver after the chair shot. That's a heel turn in my books. Such a bizarre finish. They did a similar spot in Philly three years later but it was after the bell and Skaaland was looking to prevent his man from suffering an injury. This shit was bogus.

Is the TV we have from '71 onwards predominantly Delaporte's promotion or do we have footage from other promotions as well? I would argue that there were even more gimmicks in the 60s than there were in the 70s, especially in the way of the success of L'Ange Blanc and other masked gimmicks. When I was going through all of the posters and match records we have from the era, I noted plenty of gimmicks that never aired on TV like the knockoff OSS 17 gimmick (the French version of James Bond), and so on. A lot of this stuff didn't make TV. That may have been because promoters wanted to push their top guys, or because politically the promoters were better off keeping the gimmickry stuff off the screens. We know that Catch was under attack in the early 60s for not being the sporting contest it portrayed itself as. We still don't know how the TV worked, tbh, which is something always bothered me. How did the broadcaster decide which promotion they would show each week? Was there an agreement amongst the promoters as to the rotation of the promotions or was it t the whim of the broadcaster? One thing that's notable about the catch broadcasts is that you very rarely see the workers dressed up in their gimmicks. This seemed to be intentionally kept off the screens. You don't see Spartacus in his Gladiator gear, for example, or M'Boa with his snake. You don't even see Batman in his full get up. There's an episode from 1969 where the heels are wearing their full costumes, but I can't think of too many other examples outside of the L'Ange Blanc run. Things appeared to be a lot more lax by '71, but I would counter that there wasn't a pick up in intensity with the gimmick workers. Rather, I think there's a serious decline in both the foreign talent available and local talent. There's a lot of amazing light heavyweight wrestling in the early 70s and some cool heavyweight stuff involving the feds, but there isn't a steady stream of new talent. When you don't have talented new wrestlers, you tend to get guys relying more on gimmicks to get over. However, gimmicks were always a part of French wrestling just like they were always a part of British wrestling. I'm fairly sure there was a steady overlap between 60s French gimmicks and the Paul Lincoln gimmicks of 1960s England. After all, there seemed to be an exchange of talent between the two.

Disgusting short for an atomicos match, but there were a bunch of talented dudes involved and they made the most of the time they were given. Atlantis continued his beef with Bucanero, two future Mistico matches were set-up against Averno and Ultimo Guerrero, Hector Garza continued to get his rudo act over, and they threw in a Black Warrior tope for good measure. It wound up being a high octane bout despite how criminally short it was.

Bob Backlund vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 10/22/83) This was a very good brawl between the two. It was a Sicilian stretcher match, but instead of doing a bunch of spots with the stretcher like most workers do, they beat the crap out of each other until Backlund finally got the chicken wing on Slaughter and the Sarge passed out. The refs dumped Slaughter out of the ring like he was a piece of trash and that was enough for Bob to win the bout. Great creepy/intense interview with Rudman afterwards. Why isn't Rudman in the booth? Love that guy. These two had a Texas Death Match the month before, but I can't find it anywhere. Let me know if it's out in the wild somewhere.

This was a good match. It was Takaiwa so there was some no-selling, but it was all in the name of high stakes drama. I've always had a soft spot for Takaiwa as he was part of some of the first matches I downloaded from the internet back in the days when it took 36 hours and several disconnected attempts to download anything. I love his unavoidable journeyman look that even a shaven head can't disguise and his earnestness to be the best possible worker that he can be. A bit like Kanemaru really. In this case like vs. like produced something good and gets the thumbs up from me.

This was a very good match that was overshadowed by a serious neck injury on a botched Olimpico dive. Atlantis and Panther, the two legends and former rivals, bucked recent trends in CMLL by attempting to produce meaningful falls and Panther insured that there was at least some matwork in the title match. The botched spot occurred early on in the tercera caida when Olimpico tried to do a running tope near the ringpost. He mistimed grabbing the top rope with his right hand, and instead of Atlantis catching him, he fell straight on his head. Babe Richard and the ringside doctor immediately ran to his aid. Galavision replayed the accident several times. Olimpico would be out for around five months, but it could have been worse. I felt bad for the guy. He was finally in the mix but once again he couldn't catch a break. They either improvised a finish or took things home early, but obviously the Olimpico injury put a dampner on things.

This had a surprisingly weak build-up for a WWE match, and features two of the biggest ham actors in the history of professional wrestling, but it's not bad considering that they weren't able to smash their way through any announcer tables and had to tell a story between the ropes. There are a few cringe moments but also some good stuff. You can occasionally see Taz and Michael Cole in the background. Cole looks bored, but Taz is focused on the match. I can only imagine the hyperbola if Cole were on commentary. The reason this match is a footnote in WWE history instead of something more fondly remembered is that Edge cheats to win and hams it up afterward. They also didn't take the feud much further than this. By the time Wrestlemania rolls around, Shawn squares off against Angle and Edge is competing in the Money in the Bank match.

Bob Backlund vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 8/13/83) Another fun chapter in their '83 feud. Backlund is still incensed about the whipping he received and beats the shit out of Slaughter for most of the bout, but Slaughter claws and fights his way back into the bout and there's a cool finish where Slaughter is standing on the apron and catches Backlund in the cobra clutch. He thinks he's won the bout but young Joey Marella counts him out and Slaughter puts the cobra clutch on Marella after the bout. Gorilla is on commentary with Dick, which isn't half as fun as Kal being there, but the times were a changing.

This was a really good match. It even had a lengthy opening mat exchange between Blue Panther and Tarzan Boy which reminded me that I'm not crazy and that Tarzan Boy developed into an excellent worker from 2000-2005. The rest of the bout was full of smart lucha exchanges. Atlantis continued his long-running rivalry with Rey Bucanero and Mistico was given some showcase moments. The finish was screwy but in a way that actually worked and made the rudos look clever. The trios set up a tag title match between Atlantis & Panther and Olimpico & Bucanero. I had no idea Atlantis & Panther were the tag champions at the time as for the some reason their title win didn't air on television (or is unavailable on tape in the US -- the broadcasts were a bit sketchy around this time.) Hopefully, the title match continues the good vibes from this trios.

This was a perfectly solid Triple H vs. Orton match. I had no complaints about the work and was happy to see a clear, definitive end to the feud. However, I will point out that it was very clear and very definitive, as Orton never had a chance to hit the RKO while Triple H finished Orton with a pedigree. Triple H evaded the RKO three times, IIRC, which is telling given Orton's gimmick is that he can hit the RKO from anywhere. It's a cool move and was given the Stone Cold Stunner treatment over the course of Orton's face run, but Triple H put that to bed. They worked a concussion angle prior to the finish. I assume it was designed to give Orton an out for the loss, but it was in poor taste given what we know about concussion injuries. Apparently, they turn Orton heel after this and have him feud with the Undertaker. I guess that's a smart move since they need to get Orton out of the way of the Triple H vs. Batista feud, but I've always wondered how, kayfabe-wise, wrestlers can get over a loss like this and move onto the next thing.

Fun six-man tag heading into the Rumble. The set-up for the Edge vs. Shawn Michaels match is weak sauce, but it's kind of fun watching Edge mock Michaels. Benoit vs. Christian was a solid match-up and made me wonder if there's more instances of that pairing.

Thanks for sharing the clips, Phil.

Are those recent additions to the archives? Does anyone know if the INA add new footage to the archives?

Bob Backlund vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 5/23/83) This may be my favorite Backlund vs. Slaughter match. It helps if you watch the angle leading into the match where Slaughter challenged Backlund to beat his record at the Harvard Step Test only to attack Bob and whip him with his swagger stick. Bob is pissed before the bout saying that Slaughter had hurt everyone close to him and that he had tried to keep the beating a secret from his daughter but she had seen the footage at a friend's house. What follows is a frantic brawl where Backlund gets, in the words of the Macho Man Randy Savage, only a piece of what he wants from Slaughter.

Who are the opponents?

This was more about Orton's upcoming match against Triple H than it was Flair against Orton. Flair's main contribution to the match was busting open the stitches on Orton's forehead before it became the Orton vs. Triple H go home show confrontation. There was more tension between Triple H and Batista as well. I'm curious to see what they do with Orton after the Rumble.

I was also confused by what happened at the beginning. Things seemed to get out of hand with some fans, and they cut to Cornette cutting a promo on Bobby Heenan. This was a decent, hard-hitting bout. I dig Danielson's new look. They actually went ahead and did a Best of Five with each match having a different stipulation. Looks like it took them until May to complete the series. The booking here was fairly simple with Homicide beating Danielson at his own match, playing off the injury Danielson had suffered at the end of their last match where the Rottweilers tried to break his arm. Danielson demanded a taped fist match after the bout before stomping on Homicide's head.

Finally, a badass Suzuki match. I knew there had to be one eventually since it was a badass in the 2010s. No surprise that it's against the best in the world. Suzuki seemed to embrace the opportunity to step on Kobashi's home turf and piss all over it. I liked how they acknowledged that Kobashi had no counter to Suzkui's grappling skill, but that his chops and lariat were more than a match for Suzuki's strikes. I also liked the way Kobashi countered Suzuki's stand up game with a good old-fashioned headlock, which was in equal parts amusing and awesome because of the intensity that Kobashi exuded. They didn't go too deep into the well during this one, but honestly that made it an easier watch.

I love me some Super Parka and matches like this are the reason why: slow, methodical brawling with thoughtful rudo work. Even Monterrey, with all its bullshit, can't prevent this from being an entertaining singles match. It's hard to believe at times that Nicho used to be Psicosis. I sometimes wonder what sort of runs he could have in Mexico if he hadn't dropped his mask so cheaply. Still, if Super Parka can be awesome walking around in a skeleton outfit with a Superman "S" on the chest, Nicho can try a bit harder too. I really need to go on a Super Parka binge. I think I like him better than the actual Parka.