ohtani's jacket

Dynamite Kid vs. Tally Ho Kaye (1/12/77) No matter what people think of the Dynamite Kid these days, there's no denying he was a talented teenage wrestler. Dynamite's biggest strength was his execution -- an attribute he was already showing at age 17. He just had so much more poise than other workers his own age, and I wonder what might have become of him had he stayed in England and spent his career there. If you've ever seen Tally Ho Kaye, you'll know his matches had a paucity of wrestling, but he was a heat magnet and like Breaks vs. a youngster it gave Dynamite the chance to really get the crowd behind him. I'm not sure how good Dynamite was at mat wrestling at this stage, but his throws were outstanding and Kaye milked the heat opportunities for all they were worth. Not a great bout from a technical standpoint, but an entertaining enough excursion. Dick Conlon vs. Jackie Pallo Jr (3/14/74) Pallo Jr was better than I would have expected, though wasn't as talkative or lippy as his old man. Conlon was how you would imagine a jobber to the stars if they had a slight heel push (in this case a Mexican bandito moustache.) All told it was a decent bout, but what surprised me was that Walton gave a kayfabe reason for the Pallos starting their own promotion and more or less said they wouldn't be on television anymore. Afterwards, Pallo leaned down to ask Walton if his performance had been alright. Walton congratulated him and the pair shook hands. Not sure if that was a goodbye or if Walton was just tight with the Pallos, but it was against the norm. This was wrestled at Gravesend and that little old lady who was always in the same front row seat sure loved her "Jack." She was incredibly vocal the whole match long to the point where the crowd teased her about it, but you should hear her give Max Ward an earful. Classic stuff. Barry Douglas vs. Johnny Peters (2/25/76) I discovered in this match that there were moves which were banned in Sheffield by the local watch committee. These included the back elbow, the arm leveler over the shoulder joint and the headbutt. I asked the folks over at Wrestling Heritage whether these regulations were enforced or not and apparently it was serious business. The local council would send people to the hall and if any of the moves were performed they had the authority to shut the place down. This was a lot more interesting than the match, which was technically okay but had no heat whatsoever and Walton brought up Douglas' connections to the local promoters too much which gave it a kind of nepotistic feel that it probably didn't deserve. One thing is for sure, he wasn't the Southern Terry Rudge as his Wrestling Heritage profile used to claim. Young David (Davey Boy Smith) vs. Bernie Wright (8/2/78) This was billed as a special "teenage match." You can imagine the response I'd get if I posted it on YouTube. Davey Boy was 15 here and Wright 17. It was possibly the skinniest pro-wrestling match I've ever seen. It's weird seeing Davey Boy as a skinny 15 year old without a hint of a single anabolic steroid. You wonder what was going through his mind at the time. Also knowing the type of person he became, you begin to wonder whether the child was father to the man. At any rate, neither kid knew many holds so this was largely bumping and throwing. Bernie Wright had a neat little stomach throw that Walton was fascinated with. No real surprises here. Chris Adams vs. Ringo Rigby (11/9/78) I was curious to see this as Ringo and Adams went off to North America together. The footage didn't capture all of it, but it didn't really matter as it was a shitty tournament bout with this stupid rule that after the first fall they would both put on their gi and have a special judo throws challenge. Pretty crappy.

Tibor Szakacs vs. Big Bruno Elrington (12/4/74) This was a surprisingly good match. Bruno Elrington was this really big cumbersome guy who couldn't even making his clubbing strikes look good, but Szakacs worked a fantastic match from underneath and there was a huge amount of tension around whether he could beat the larger man. He had a bit of trouble applying his usual leg scissor holds against Elrington and so he changed his strategy towards leg locks and grounding Bruno. Bruno got frustrated with this and began bending the rules, which upset the grandma brigade. At one stage, Elrington and Szakacs were tangled up in the ropes and a woman at ringside began slapping Elrington. As you can imagine, the heat was tremendous, and when Szakacs finally landed his back handed chop both Walton and the crowd exploded. After so much work on his leg, Elrington was beginning to limp and looked slightly gassed. The crowd was on edge over whether Szakacs could beat him and that sort of tension was rare during television bouts. If Bruno had been a marginally better worker I would have listed this for sure. Tibor Szakacs vs.Gargantua (5/8/74) This was a real come down after the last match. Gargantua was Big Jim Moran, who sometimes went by the alias of Man Mountain Moran, so this was another match with Szakacs vs. a big man, but was largely shtick looking to a DQ. Les Kellett vs. Tug Holton (2/13/75) Not the best Kellett match available in large part because his opponent didn't offer much, but there were a couple of funny moments involving Kellett standing on Max Ward's foot and the usual antics of Kellett pretending not to hear the bell. And again, he looked like the hardest bastard in all of professional wrestling. Steve Veidor vs. Gordon Corbett (11/16/76) I was excited to see a nice face on the small screen only to discover that Corbett only appeared once (at least as himself; he appeared a couple of times under a mask doing a heel exorcist gimmick.) Veidor worked this one as though Corbett was a handful and did this really cool extended arm leveler attack. Good bout.

I just spent twenty seconds quelling a tirade against UWF-i.

Pierre Lagache/René Cabellec vs. René Ben Chemoul/Bob Plantin (1978) In one of the versions of this bob ALPRA uploaded he said it was Chemoul's final bout. Personally, I found it kind of lacklustre. The heels were nowhere near as interesting as most of the pairings we've seen so far and the action was average. Once again the video cut out after the first fall. To me this was skippable. Marc Mercier vs. Alex Sanniez (1978) Mercier was a young French talent who appeared on WoS once facing Marty Jones. He had a car accident in 1989 that forced him to retire and later became a promoter reactivating the defunct FFCP promotion in 2006. Here he was a skinny second year man, and if you're familiar with Euro wrestling you'll know that skinny means skinny. This was quite a decent bout and I thought Sanniez did a great job of keeping it tight. But again there was no finish, perhaps deliberately so to only upload part of the footage.

Thanks to Raging Noodles for translating the interview. It's actually pretty funny.

Negro Casas/El Felino/Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. El Dandy/La Fiera/Corazon de Leon, CMLL 7/23/93 This was the epitome of a nothing match. It began with some sort of sit down talk between Casas and Felino with heel commentator Arturo Rivera serving as mediator. They seemed engaged in a philosophical debate over whether Casas was still a rudo, which I'm sure is riveting if you understand a word of Spanish, but perplexing if you don't. How could Casas and Felino remain on the same side when Casas threw in the towel to cost Felino his welterweight title? That's the sort of contradiction that makes it difficult for people to get into lucha. One minute Casas doesn't want to be a rudo anymore and is trying to buddy with Dandy; the next minute he's turning on his brother in what most of us have been preconditioned to believe is a face turn for Felino. Either this is an incredibly sophisticated angle which I can't understand or there's no continuity. It's as though they teased a Casas brothers feud through the summer only to drop it for something else. As best I can tell, Felino accuses Casas of being envious, but the theme for Casas' entire 1993 seems to be a crisis of faith. Seriously, if you can understand Spanish and you care enough, drop me a line and let me know what's going on. The confusion wouldn't have been so bad if the match had been any good, but it was the opposite of a fun Arena Coliseo match. I usually watch these matches two or three times while writing them up, but this wasn't a match I'd want to sit through again. Felino and Casas almost came to blows during Rivera's intervention yet there was no pay off in the match. The vignette was probably shot separately to the match so I can understand there being no connection, but why book this way if you can't really produce a television show? Casas was still avoiding wrestling Dandy the way he did in 1992, Wagner was greener than Espectro's mask, Jericho was fucking awful in Mexico, and the match-up I was most looking forward to seeing, Dandy vs. Felino, was slow and ponderous. The entire match was long and drawn out. The only guy who provided a spark was Fiera, which if you've seen the condition he was in during 1993 was a little depressing. Enough about this one.

Tony St. Clair vs. Bob Abbott (3/14/73) This was a fine sporting contest without a lot of heat. Abbott was making his television debut but despite Walton's best efforts to question why the promoters hadn't put him on television before, and put him over as a local Nottingham boy, he didn't have quite the charisma or confidence of his opponent. A couple of Walton's pet peeves were on display here, one being the director getting Abbott's name wrong (listing him as "Bud" Abbott of Abbott and Costello), the other being a plead for people to not write in correcting him over where St. Clair was billed from. The on screen text may have been a rib; the letters I can imagine ITV received dozens per week correcting Walton over something. What did surprise me was that Walton referred to a St. Clair vs. Steele match from a few weeks earlier that he called one of the best matches he'd ever seen. I was aware of which wrestlers Walton rated, but I'd never heard him talk about a match that way. This was good and Abbott had some nice counters, but he needed to be less reserved as St. Clair looked more natural getting toweled off in the corner than Abbott did all match long. Steve Veidor vs. Bob Abbott (3/27/74) A year later and Walton was still pushing for Abbott to be on television more. I've often wondered what the politics of that sort of thing were. And was Walton shooting from the hip or was it just commentator-speak? As it was, Abbott had a half dozen appearances or so over three years and was never seen again. Not a bad wrestler, but like a lot of guys he was missing that spark that separated a guy like Veidor from the rest of the pack. Britain was full of heavyweights in this era, but Veidor was head and shoulders above most as a master stylist and a hugely charismatic individual. But even he could never pry the title from either Albert "Rocky" Wall or Gwynn Davies, as interesting Joint Promotions preferred to have a heel on top. Some lovely wrestling here from both men and Abbott again contributed a lot of nice holds, but the kind of match for a lazy summer's afternoon and not the kind of barn burner Veidor usually had against heels. I could watch him any time, though. Such a beautiful stylist.

90% of it is your voice. Gorilla had a good voice. Michael Cole doesn't.

Jean Rabut vs. Venta Costella (1/22/60) Costella was a real Spanish wrestler not like the supposed Modesto Aledo video. About 10 minutes of this aired. Decent lightweight match with the pin attempts being pretty sensational. Angelito vs. Albert Sanniez (1977) This was a fun match with a lot of neat holds in the maestros style. A bit exhibition-y, but fluid. If this were a classic lucha match, I'd be over the moon with the discovery. I'm starting to think Euro wrestling delivers more than lucha when it comes to the matwork and exchanges. Fred Magnier vs. Bob Plantin Magnier was a fun heel. A tubby little guy with an ugly mug. Plantin did all sorts of Euro style escapes here, including an awesome spin out on his head, but this was a mauling and Plantin's corner finally threw in the towel. Referee/promoter Roger Delaporte had trouble separating Magnier from Plantin and finally the pair came to blows. Somewhat amusing considering Delaporte was one of the biggest heels of his day. Kind of reminded me of McManus playing the elder statesman after retiring.

I seem to remember Heenan and Monsoon on commentary being a highlight of Royal Rumble '92 and Wrestlemania VIII.

That was another part I disliked. Why did Casas have to play the underdog? All feud long they've been unleashing on each other and then in the hair match he's outmatched? And what a dumb story to run if he was meant to lose.

Actually, I thought it was okay up until the finish to the second fall, but it was a dog's breakfast after that. The final fall was crap and the finish was awful. They should have pulled the trigger on it sooner, but it was never going to be violent enough in the modern day Arena Mexico.

Yeah, that was tremendously average.

Ignoring the Andre thing completely: At this point, I'm kind of okay with a "standards are transitory and good wrestling is timeless and not in the very least tied to them." mindset, if it'll make this argument go away? "Standards" to me simply means a measure, norm or model for comparative evaluations. I don't think it necessarily refers to the level of quality, though it can do. I'm not so sure that I agree that good wrestling is timeless. There are fundamental aspects of wrestling that are timeless, but wrestling is so tied up in presentation that you can't escape the fact that it's ever changing. Think about the AAA you've been enjoying. That was a different style from CMLL or the UWA. The fundamentals were similar but the style was markedly different. When AAA got over, the standard for trios wrestling changed. CMLL looked old and obsolete at both the level of the work and the gimmicks. We can come along and cherry pick what we think is good wrestling, but that ignores the reality of what was happening at the time.

I liked the Busick/Thatcher Beyond Wrestling match for the most part, but I don't see how it relates to 50s wrestling. To me it was completely post-modern. And overly aggressive. It's more aggressive, but the style Thatcher/Busick/Gulak are working is essentially a stripped down modern style that hearkens back to the 1950s. It's not about building up to a big move, or even working over a specific body part, but rather using mat work and wrestling control to work over your opponent, essentially grind him to a finish. In a lot of ways it's very catch-as-catch can on a base level, and when watching a lot of older catch stuff I can very much see the matches this trio of guys are having fitting into that time frame. Really, because I just see them borrowing elements from everywhere, not really working from a catch-as-can base. They never really ground that hard in catch. It was more about dressing and undressing holds. These guys were overly aggressive w/ a focus on stiffness and much nastier throws. The influences seemed to be shoot style and British heavyweight workers as opposed to the really great catch workers. The people in the room were really annoying as well. "Please don't tap" may have overtaken "this is awesome" as the worst chant conceivable.

Is there really a type of wrestler PWO likes? We have pretty diverse tastes.

El Dandy/Pierroth Jr./Chamaco Valaguez vs. Negro Casas/Mogur/Black Magic, CMLL 7/30/93 This was a fun Arena Coliseo style match. You won't find too many guys at their best at Arena Coliseo as it was very much the secondary show to the main Arena Mexico cards, and the matches were more about heat than great work, but when the crowd get behind a match as they do here, it makes for a fun environment where the charismatic workers can really shine. Smiley was in his element here really lapping up the heat and bumping around like a gazelle. As long time readers will know, I've never been a fan of foreigners in lucha (aside from the Puerto Rican guys), but this was a spirited performance from Smiley, who took to Mexico like a duck to water. From a Casas perspective, the match was slightly disappointing as it was one of those bouts where he's in no mood to lock-up, robbing us of quality Casas/Dandy exchanges; but it was full of the character work and audaciousness that made him so popular. There were several story lines going on at once, the primary one being a feud between Mogur and Chamaco Valaguez that never really went anywhere. The mental image I have of Valaguez is from his luchawiki profile where he's the picture of youth, so it was odd seeing him look middle-aged when he was only in his mid-30s. I have a soft spot for post pushed-to-the-moon Mogur, so I enjoyed the Valaguez exchanges, but to highlight the vagaries of CMLL booking, Valaguez wound up losing his hair to Cachorro Mendoza instead of the grudge match they were building to here. As well as the ongoing Smiley vs. Pierroth feud, there was the faint hint of a Casas/Dandy hair match, which was a giant missed opportunity during the lost years. They also teased a Casas technico turn, but in true lucha fashion it took more than a year to materialise. Initially, Casas preferred to let Smiley and Mogur lock-up with Dandy so he could deliver cheap shots at his rival. When Dandy finally retaliated, Casas took a spell on the outside wandering into the crowd and blowing kisses to his adoring public. He didn't want a piece of the Valaguez inspired comeback and played janken with Smiley to decide who would brace the onslaught. Smiley had scissors and Casas paper, but still Negro refused to enter the ring. Pushing and shoving ensued and Casas gave Smiley a chop before getting in the ring. A painful exchange with Pierroth followed and Casas decided to knock Smiley silly with a forearm smash. In most cultures that would be a full blown face turn, but in Mexico passions run deep. An argument broke out on the outside with Casas using Dandy as a shield to keep Smiley at bay. This led to an inexplicable moment where Casas and Dandy were needling each other and Casas hugged him to make peace. Dandy gave him this classic WTF look, and if you can lip read Spanish had a few choice words for Negro. Casas had a bee in his bonnet after that. Again he wouldn't lock up with Dandy (much to Smiley's disgust), and not only did he encourage the crowd to taunt Smiley with Mexico chants, he publicly reprimanded him for faking a foul, which is rich coming from Casas. I think the gist of all this was that Casas took objection to Smiley calling the shots as a foreigner and thought he and Dandy should band together as brothers, but it was wonderfully unclear as he continued to beat on Valaguez. The great thing about all this was that Dandy didn't give a fuck and drop kicked Casas off the turnbuckle all the same. Afterwards they had a post match scuffle where Casas scored a bunch of headlock takedowns before bailing on the fight. That seemed to turn Casas rudo again, or at least ended his little play acting, and the rudos were back tagging with each other in no time at all. The incongruities of lucha libre can be difficult to understand at times, but sometimes you've got to bask in the inexplicablity of it all and enjoy the moment. It certainly wasn't dull and was an interesting back drop to the Mogur/Valaguez narrative.

Walter Bordes/Michel Falempin vs. Jean Menard/Gerald Bouvet This looks like it might possibly be from the 80s, which makes it their maestros match. And it's a pretty cool maestros match. It's not a technical showcase as such, but more of a maestros version of those heel vs. face tag matches from the 60s where they'd do the slingshot into the guy caught in the ropes and other crowd pleasing spots. Menard continues to look great. Really an accomplished rudo. I'd love to see something from his prime.

I liked the Busick/Thatcher Beyond Wrestling match for the most part, but I don't see how it relates to 50s wrestling. To me it was completely post-modern. And overly aggressive.

Fair enough about the cross arm breaker.

Watched Ishii/Nagata. First Nagata match I've seen in god knows how many years. I dunno about that anti-aging hero t-shirt as he looks pretty bad for 46. Match was loaded with crappy strike exchanges. Ishii should stick with the headbutts, chops and slaps and ditch those god awful forearms. This was okay as a bare bones sort of bout, but there's no way that a guy with a separated shoulder doesn't tap out to a cross arm breaker. That was ridiculous. Then Nagata did a brainbuster on the shoulder and Ishii still kicked out. Finally, he dropped his selling to burn through a stretch run and put Nagata away. Not very impressive, but he wasn't in much state to be wrestling. Nagata was out of position on a lot of Ishii's stuff and had to keep wriggling about, which was distracting. All told, kind of average.

When people say standards don't change, it sounds like they're talking about fundamentals and not standards. I guess it's open to interpretation, but there's no way the stuff from the G-1 final (for example) is of the same standard as 60s French catch. That's not a value judgement as I prefer 60s French catch over 2014 New Japan, but you won't see a New Japan finishing stretch in 1960s Paris, I can tell you that much. In fact, they're so far apart stylistically that it may be a generalisation to say fundamentals don't change.

That's mostly what Okada and Nakamura did. It's just not that novel because New Japan workers counter each other's moves in every match. Personally, I'd rather watch longer New Japan matches as I think finishing stretches like that need a wider arc, but from what I've seen only Suzuki and Nakamura have the tools to work an interesting build. Suzuki with his matwork and Nakamura with his kicks.

Watched the final this morning. It was a very good match; on the cusp of being excellent if Okada had been tidier. I didn't have a problem with the build though it was generally more interesting when Nakamura took over. The finishing stretch was great and Okada's athleticism is unreal at times. I thought they could have lead into the finish slightly better, but it was memorable enough. Okada still looks a bit awkward at times -- a combination of his lankiness, execution and tendency to repeat place holder spots like using the guardrail -- but he's showing improvement.

Michel Allary vs. Jack de Lassartesse (1/22/60) Rene Lassartesse has got to be one of the best heels in the history of European wrestling. The swagger with which he walked to the ring has rarely been duplicated in the 54 years that followed, and the tilt of the head and air of superiority had everyone in the building recalling in disgust that he should view them as so inferior. He was ridiculously long and used every inch of his frame to full effect, but he had plenty of comedic timing as well and knew when to show ass and follow it up with a cheap shot and strut. His opponent here was a popular heavyweight who had his career cut short when he broke his back in London wrestling the Australian heavyweight Bill Verna. This turned into a total forearm smash contest and was similar to those four round bouts Mike Marino or Tibor Szakacs would have in the 70s where it was more of a showcase than an epic bout, but it was a blast to see Lassartesse bump and stooge and rile everyone up.