ohtani's jacket

Probably the best seller I've seen. Like most people I found him stoic and uninteresting at first and was drawn to Kawada and his narrative, but once Misawa clicked for me, he clicked in a big way. Suddenly, I started noticing how amazing he was as an ace. I usually hate it when wrestlers spring a big move early (like the surprise German suplex in Joshi), but with Misawa it never felt like it was a shock tactic. He was always in complete control. He had that move in his arsenal and could hit it at any time. I have no doubt that put his opponent in two minds about how to progress with the match. But the most epic thing about Misawa was the beatings he would take. Man did he know how to lay himself out as an ace. Watching him teeter on the brink of defeat was something else. It was about as close as wrestling gets to actual sports.

Probably the wrestler whose stock has dropped the furthest with me since we did the Smarkschoice poll. The 1997 heel turn and the '04-05 WWE run are the only two periods of his career I'm fond of.

His formula worked because he had such beautiful execution on his signature spots. I don't think there's any way you can get tired of Santo's dives. Having said that, his rep is helped a lot by his father. I realise it was a difficult legacy to live up to, but on the flipside there's an immediate attraction to the gimmick and for many people he's a gateway drug to real Mexican lucha libre. I know we shouldn't penalise guys for being gateway drugs, but the truth is once you start getting into lucha you realise there are a lot of good guys; they're just not as heralded as Santo. In order not to hold that against Santo, it's necessary to find the truly great Santo performances and unfortunately his best period appears to have been in the late 80s and early 90s where very little of his work made tape. His AAA years are a waste and along with the messy Casas feud took a huge chunk out of his prime years. I don't know if I'd say he was outstanding on the mat. He was very good in certain situations, but I don't think it was his calling card. I also don't see an inconsistency in Satanico's work rather a slump that came with age, but that's a side issue.

Hokuto was always one of the examples used in the peak vs. longevity argument. Criticism over the brevity of her peak always existed, but was drowned out her vocal group of fans and the cult of personality that surrounded her. I think she's a case of a worker who was actually helped by how difficult it was to obtain footage prior to the digital age since a year's work of her peak was a serious investment in those days and acquiring footage to compare it to wasn't easy. Her placement in the original list was a product of the times, but I wouldn't say it was undeserved. She was an intense performer who delivered matches that were easy to weave a narrative around and for the most part she had tremendous execution. She was good at selling and worked a nice mix of brawling and bomb throwing. Her matches could be spotty at times, but not glaringly so. If anything, I'd argue that her matches were too "story driven" with a constant focus on her hard luck story and collection of real life injuries. In the big matches that's fine, but it got to the point that it was the focus of every match. Her post early retirement work deserves reconsideration as it's possibly better than it was given credit for at the time.

I would say the same amount of research that goes into the bios for each inductee. Last year, I read the bios for both Atlantis and Dr. Wagner Sr, which were written by Steve Sims and Jose respectively, and they were both very informative, but that information should be out there prior to induction. I suppose most voters only had a vague notion of who Dr Wagner Sr and Atlantis were and abstained from voting in that section (or whatever the rules are), but generating awareness of candidates seems largely based on individual voters trying to push a guy's case either in the WON or on the internet. I don't really understand why candidates on placed on the ballot without Dave introducing them and explaining why they've been included. They just seem to pop up. Unfortunately, we can't rely on anyone from Japan or Mexico to provide us with a wealth of information because of the language barriers, and even with Europe, John Lister can correct me if I'm wrong, but most British historians don't appear to operate within the WON sphere and are oblivious to the entire thing. I realise Dave is busy and all, but if it were me I'd write to someone and say look I'm putting this guy on the ballot this year can you put together something explaining his case and I'll print it in the WON. Maybe he does do that, but it seems to be guys submitting stuff of their own volition.

Young David vs. Black Jack Mulligan (11/8/80) Not enough of this survives to really form an opinion, but considering that even Davey Boy Smith took two straight from Jack Mulligan, this notion I had that Mulligan was something more than enhancement talent has been well and truly put to bed. Alan Kilby vs. Chris Adams (12/17/80) For about a month from the end of November 1980 to just before Christmas, Joint Promotions ran a tournament to commemorate 25 years of wrestling on television (a bizarre mix of heats, injury withdrawals, quarterfinals decided by throws, and even a walk over when Breaks walked out on a match and refused to continue.) The prize was the coveted 25th Anniversary Trophy, which would look good on any wrestler's mantelpiece. Kilby and Adams made the semis, but drew and were forced to have this rematch on the night of the final. Rematches being what they were, the promoters decided to make it the first to 10 throws. Not really a match as such, but they milked it for all it was worth and the crowd were into it. A glitch in the VHS tape saw the match jump from the beginning to the end, but Kilby made it through 10-9. Alan Dennison vs. Alan Kilby (12/17/80) With the boss of World of Sport in attendance to present the trophy, both wrestlers took this fairly seriously. I was surprised by the lack of shtick from Dennison, who was usually a very talkative wrestler. He did start to pipe up deep in the match when the trophy was really on the line, but for the most part this was a pretty straight up bout from Dennison. I was rooting for Kilby despite the trophy not being very important and it being a 33 year old result just because I like the guy, but his victory was genuinely exciting and he seemed legitimately thrilled. He did this random back flip bump and his second rushed into the ring to hug him. They even brought out his wife and kids to share the moment with him. The WoS bigwig presented the trophy and Dennison got on the stick to remind everyone that what we had to remember was that this man was both deaf and dumb, as though we could somehow forget with the number of times Walton mentioned it, but that little bit of awkwardness couldn't spoil what was a great moment for a great wrestler. Clive Myers vs. Johnny Kidd (11/13/84) This was from the original broadcast and therefore was joined in progress. What was shown was decent action, but Myers won in straight falls and I was surprised that he didn't do more to put Kidd over as he was usually the type of worker to do that. Pat Patton vs. Johnny England (11/18/81) When I saw that this went the full six rounds, I struggled to think how they would fill in 30 minutes. Patton was basically a Kung Fu knockoff with an ugly green gi, and England was this mini-Adonis who was a body building brat. It was literally the type of match I would overlook every single time I flicked through the match listings, but this not only surprised me, it ended up being just about the best bout you could get from two no-name workers in a television setting. The match went for a long time without any score with England dictating terms through his strength holds and Patton looking dangerous with his quick counters until England finally scored a submission. He tried to sit on his lead and got the crowd up in arms over his time wasting while Patton did everything he could to get back into the bout. Very exciting finish to a bout I had zero expectations for.

See, nobody's going to know that about the Brazos. There's not enough serious research done about the candidates from outside the US because of the language barrier and the inaccessibility of not only numbers and figures but all sorts of basic information that we take for granted about US candidates. It becomes a matter of hearsay or voting for a candidate because some you trust endorsed them. Guys get voted in like McManus without so much as a single critique of his candidacy while someone like Sting gets put through the ringer. I don't even really think we know that much about Taue aside from the matches he wrestled and what the shows drew.

I take it that's a joke.

I don't think you can dismiss Los Brazos so easily. There needs to be some research done into their drawing power, because their act holds up a whole lot better on tape than the Misioneros and they lasted through to the mid 90s.

I imagine shoot style is excessively boring if you don't like it. Sounds like Parv was trying to get a nibble with the rest.

Like a Backlund one hour draw wouldn't have had a 25 minute headlock anyway?

Should be good. Wait til you hear him rattle off the names. It's awesome.

El Hijo Del Santo vs. Espanto Jr. (4/10/88) The last time we left Santo and Espanto Jr. they were having their classic 1986 mask match, but the feud itself was far from over. If the history between the original El Santo and Los Espantos had been the hook then the mask match was the first act climax with things intensifying as the second act progressed. There's basically three ways you can hurt a luchador: you can strip him of a title, you can make him suffer the indignity of a shaven head, or you can steal his very identity from him with an unmasking. Espanto over the course of the 5 or 6 years that UWA remained a viable entity because hell bent on not only unmasking Santo but proving himself the better wrestler in a classic title match and apuestas feud, which are naturally the best kind. Espanto and Santo essentially feuded over four titles. The primarily focus of their feud was over the UWA World Lightweight Championship which Santo had first won in 1984 by defeating Negro Casas at El Toreo, briefly dropped to Aristotle I, whose mask he took for his troubles, then regained for another lengthy reign. The lightweight title is the belt they're fighting over here. They also chased each other over the WWA World Lightweight, UWA World Welterweight, and WWA World Welterweight titles culminating (on tape at least) in their classic 1992 handheld title bout. Espanto was the champion going into this bout having finally dethroned Santo for the championship after literally a dozen attempts at trying. That title change happened on 7/26/87 in Torreon, Coahuila. Espanto, although born in Durango, was based out of Torreon, and most of the jobs Santo did for him were either in Torreon or his birthplace of Gomez Palacio. Of course Santo being Santo, with as carefully a groomed image as Michael Jordan, would immediately get his heat back with a hair match victory, and that's what happened a week later. Espanto got to hang onto the belt for a few months though, and what we have here is a title defence in his hometown hence some of the cheering for his heel tactics. Santo hit back hard with a crushing double blow the following month when he took the title back at El Toreo on 5/1/88 and then took Espanto's hair the following week in Monterrey, but it was a feud that never really died. It cooled off somewhat after '88, but they worked another hair match at El Toreo in '89 and feuded with each for Mora's WWA promotion. They then entered AAA where Espanto initially wrestled as himself but soon suffered the fate of Solar and other UWA workers in becoming one of Pena's pet projects. The gimmick Pena had in mind for Espanto was an evil twin to face El Hijo del Santo named Santo Negro. Espanto agreed to play the role, but it only lasted a couple of months in 1995 as Santo's estate objected to Pena using the Santo image and took legal action against the company. Santo was basically on the way out at that point and gave notice to AAA at the same time, but according to the Observer he personally didn't have a problem with the Santo Negro gimmick. That is effectively where our story ends as Santo went on to have a highly successful return to CMLL, but it would be remiss of me not to mention the tragedy that befell Espanto after Santo's departure. Never one to give up on an idea, Pena changed tack and turned Espanto into Pentagon, the evil twin version of Octagon. They began in the summer of '95 on the first Triplemania show of that year with the idea being that they would have a singles match somewhere down the line, but on March 3rd, 1996 during Ultimo Dragon's AAA debut match at Aguascalientes, Pentagon took a backdrop from La Parka and suddenly lay motionless in the ring. The Observer claimed that drugs and alcohol were involved, but in any event Pentagon took the bump wrong and landed on his head causing severe head injury trauma and high cervical spinal cord contusion. Parka initially tried to lift his head and put a castigo on him, but when he pulled Pentagon up he was like a rag doll having already gone into respiratory arrest. The wrestlers desperately tried to perform CPR on him while a stunned crowd looked on. A child began to scream "He's already dead! He's already dead!" while a woman cried out for a doctor. As the stretcher came to ringside, a man began howling that it was a fraud. Pentagon lay clinically dead for three minutes before being resuscitated. In the hospital, he remained in a coma for three days and awoke to discover he was a quadriplegic who could neither see nor speak. The early prognosis wasn't good with doctors fearing he would never walk again. According to Epanto's own account, his initial reaction was one of despair. Somehow he was able to move his arm and leg for a moment and tried to make a suicide bid by rolling off the bed. His wife and doctor managed to lift him back into bed and he lay there that night praying to God. That evening he made a pact with God, and on May 13th, despite doctors saying he would never walk again, he took his first steps. Espanto regained his speech and 15 percent of his vision and was eventually able to walk again though with great difficulty and never at night due to his poor vision. He bought a gymnasium he named "El Ranchero," and with his brothers set up the El Moro school of wrestling where he trains young luchadores.

No, to put it bluntly. EDIT: I've put the Europe section to some British historians and we'll see if they care to answer. Personally, I don't agree with the ballot selections, but my preferences wouldn't get voted for anyway.

I don't think we quite got to that level.

I think I'll tap out before my brain explodes.

Someone needs to twist Jose's arm into making his podcast debut so there can actually be some lucha discussion that's comprehensive.

I don't mind Jimmy Smith's Back at the Chicken Shack, I suppose. And Birdland by Weather Report. But in general I detest most jazz I've listened to -- well over a 100 albums, which is the point at which I give up. So you don't like vocal jazz, jazz-funk or soul jazz? You don't even like jazz in hip hop? I wonder.

The Rocco/Jones bout I think we may already have. The Masambula bout is from '72 and would be a nice addition to the footage that's out there as he was one of the biggest TV stars of the day and we only have one singles bout of his. Alan Kilby vs. Johnny Wilson (12/7/81) This would be a main event any night of the week as far as I'm concerned. Love these guys and was pleased to see this. World of Sport joined it late, but it was every bit as good as an Al Kilby/Johnny Wilson match possibly could be. There was never going to be a winner in this one as it didn't serve either guy to lose, but unfortunately they went the injury route with a no contest. Kilby did sell his wrist tremendously well. What a fantastic worker he was. I can't think of anyone better who debut in the 80s. That decade would be sorely lacking if he'd never taken up the sport. Alan Kilby vs. Black Jack Mulligan (3/17/1981) This was supposed to be a return bout between Kilby and Mike Marino, but Marino was injured and Mulligan was the stand by. Unfortunately for Mulligan that meant another squash. I swear I remember Mulligan getting treated better than this at some point. Pat Roach vs. Dave Bond (4/23/86) This wasn't too bad for a match so late in the piece. It was actually on the same episode as the great Marty Jones vs. Bull Blitzer (Steve Wright) bout, which is arguably the last truly great WoS bout. They cut out an entire fall which truncated it a bit, but what was shown was good. The size difference was interesting. I generally think of Bond as a pretty big guy at least when he's in the ring with lighter men, but Roach made him look small. It's easy to forget just how big Roach was at times especially because of how agile he was. Interesting finish here as Roach knocked Bond out with a big boot, which wouldn't ordinarily knock someone out you'd think, but was a cool finish here with a nice sell from the soul man Bond. Dave Bond vs. Ray Steele (1/19/1983) Okay bout. Joined too late to really get a feel for it.

Loathing jazz with a passion is stupid because jazz is so broad that within the style there's bound to be something you like if you'd only bother to listen to it. Wrestling styles are the same. Even if you don't like joshi or lucha there is bound to be one or two workers that are the exception. For non-Joshi fans that used to be Aja Kong. You don't have to watch every highly pimped Joshi match ever to discover whether you like Aja Kong. With the advent of You Tube we shouldn't even be having these discussions. Back in 2005 there was practically NOTHING on You Tube. As far as I'm concerned, you read the pimping threads, you check something out, and if you don't like it that's fine but at least you gave it a shot.

If you're going to participate in a project of this scope you should be prepared to do some leg work. If it's just a 100 workers we like, we can submit the ballots this week.

I just can't agree. To me that's like arguing something like Tully vs. Terry Taylor is better than Flair/Steamboat.

Pete Roberts vs. Dave Bond (5/2/84) This was a nice bout between two guys I really like, but unfortunately it only lasted two and a half rounds. Since it was a one fall bout that's a realistic amount of time for one wrestler to score a fall, but I would have liked at four rounds. What we did get was enjoyable with Bond shelving the heel tactics and bringing his working boots. The body checks were solid, that's for sure. Pat Roach vs. Magnificent Maurice (3/21/83) This aired in full on The Wrestling Channel but my man send me the original broadcast version. I can't say I'm in any great hurry to rectify that, but this wasn't too bad. Maurice was basically doing his Colonel Brody shtick under his old exotico name. Brody wasn't the best wrestler around and Roach had plenty of better matches, but it was solid. The narrative was a fairly common one in that Maurice gave Brody more trouble than he was expecting (Walton loved to play on this riff), and the big man finally prevailed while getting his latest movie plugged. Pat Roach vs. Tarzan Johnny Wilson (3/5/84) Johnny Wilson is a guy I've really come to appreciate. He was a bit of a nondescript guy -- just a great body and a pair of leopard skin trunks -- but like John Elijah he was always reliable and everything I watch him I end up thinking: "yeah, that was a good bout." This was a no rounds, 20 minute time limit bout that ended up getting pretty chippy. Roach was like a bear with a sore head when he couldn't put Wilson away. The only thing I disliked about it was Roach couldn't lift Wilson properly for the Brumagen Bump and it seemed like the match was teetering towards a draw then Wilson tried an attack off the ropes and was countered for a pinfall with four seconds remaining. That tells you a bit about Johnny Wilson's station in life. Bobby Ryan vs. Steve Grey (1/13/81) This was a tournament match so it was always going to be short, but three and a half minutes? Wildly disappointing. Marty Jones vs. Bernie Wright (8/19/87) This was all right, I suppose. There was something wrong with the top rope in the opening round and they had to stop the bout for a while. Jones was either legitimately hurt or tried covering for the mishap by working an injury; either way he favoured his side for the remainder of the bout. He was slightly past his prime here and was beginning to pack on a few extra pounds. Bernie Wright has always been a guy who's missing something, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. They actually called off the first round here, which I thought was odd. Marty Jones vs. Black Jack Mulligan (6/28/84) Man, Blackjack Mulligan was a jobber to the stars here. I was surprised by how much of a squash this was. Jones looked sensational as he was still one of the best in the world here, but it's rare that a guy will dominate like this even in a catch weight contest. Walton likened it to a cat playing with a mouse, but I've got to say Mulligan earned my respect for doing the job like that. I think they were trying to build Jones back up for a rematch with Finlay. Walton was amusingly biased towards Jones. Jones gave Blackjack a forearm after the bell and Walton was making up all sorts of excuses like the bell being difficult to hear. Ventura would have had a field day with those sort of comments. Marty Jones vs. Caswell Martin (10/28/87) Marty Jones' World Mid-Heavyweight title defence streak became a minor deal in the latter years of wrestling on ITV and they'd try to add all this pomp and circumstance to the defences on the terribly revamped stand alone show. It was really depressing and small time compared to the natural buzz around a title match in the 70s and even the early 80s. More annoying for us, they strung together only bits and pieces of what was an 8 round match between two of the best wrestlers still on television for Joint Promotions. Even TWC didn't seem to obtain the full bout. Frustrating.

Negro Casas, Babe Face y Rambo vs. Villano I, Villano IV y Villano V, UWA 3/6/92 This was a blast. I know I've said this a thousand times but these 1991-92 UWA television matches were so much fun. This was clipped, but even the sped up version was great with exchanges so good they're like candy. Casas started off by wrestling Villano IV. If you're cut from the same cloth I am, you're going to want to watch this when you hear they wrestled. It was rad. Casas was rocking this black trunks/black boots combo with "UWA" written on the boots and was all business. It wasn't a long exchange, but it's got to be one of the highlights of vintage Negro Casas thus far. Babe Face surprised me here. I expected him to be washed up, which he was, but he could still take a nice bump off an arm drag and he had some really fun punch exchanges with the Villanos that led some outrageous punch drunk selling. Rambo didn't do a hell of a lot in ring, but his enthusiasm was infectious and he seemed to drive the match from the apron and with his interjections. There was a great moment where Casas had Villano IV in a headlock and Rambo was pulling on his own arm to encourage Casas to torque the hold a bit more. Aside from Babe Face's wobbly legs, other motifs included miscommunication spots between the rudos and repeat use of the low blow. Rambo was brilliant at both, interjecting himself only to fuck up and delivering one of my all-time favourite fouls. The low blow in lucha can either attain heights it never does in any other form of wrestling or be the absolute nadir of professional lucha libre. Here the rudos won with a low blow thanks to a heel ref, but you won't believe what happened next as those shitty websites keep telling me every day. I didn't catch which Villano was clutching the Mendoza jewels, but Rambo was helping to stretch out his legs when suddenly he dropped a knee to the nether regions. The rudos' reaction was priceless. They bolted faster than I've ever seen a trio exit. Villanos IV and V chased them, but they were like rats up a drain pipe. It's moments like that which make it all worth while. Villanos IV and V did most of the wrestling for their side and they were largely excellent. I love the twisting, wristy arm drags they do, and at one point one of them had Rambo on the outside and did kind of a wristlock shoulder throw for a nice Rambo bump. Quinto also had a nice matador type spot where he kept making Babe Face look like Humpty Dumpty with a spinning back kick. Casas was class through all of this and worth watching the match twice for to pick up on all the nuances. I love his finger wag when selling a bulldog and the look on his face when he mistimed a move on top of Rambo. I also loved the way he shouted at his corner when he came off second best in the first exchange to fire himself up for the reset. Really fun bout.

I would take a lot of things over Steamboat/Savage too, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're better than Savage/Steamboat. I can't see how anyone would think Regal/Ohno was a better match than Steamboat/Savage all things considered.