ohtani's jacket

Styles/Naito was good stuff. Styles is having a hell of a tournament, and the question has to be asked has there ever been a better guy at incorporating springboard moves into a match? I loved how he bust Naito open on a hellacious looking drop kick. Naito's not really the guy to sell a cut like that, as he just looked like a bug-eyed insect with a head wound, but it was a neat time killer. Naturally it gave way to the finishing stretch, but NJPW finishing stretches are pretty damn great and this was chock-a-block full of great moves. I dug the Styles Clash attempt from the second rope and the Naito counter. He went a bit too big on his offence during the stretch run, but it as forgivable. Perhaps he felt he had ground to make up with the cut. He's a really flawed and imperfect worker and it shines through in every match of his, but he does have some great looking spots. Styles looked significantly better, tho.

Kid McCoy/Greg Valentine vs. Skull Murphy/Dr. Death (1985) Now here's something. I'm sure you've all read comments on YouTube from fetishists, but did you know there was a 1985 fancam focusing on Kid McCoy's butt? In between close-ups of the Kid's ass, we get bits and pieces of a match from the halls w/ the Valentine parts edited out as this is evidently a Kid McCoy video. It even omits the opening fall since the Kid didn't score it. Instead, it focuses on the beating McCoy receives at the hands of Murphy and a guy who I'm not even sure is the Paul Lincoln Dr.Death. McCoy's selling was excellent. I'm not sure if it was because the camera was focused on him, or if it was because of the sustained FIP segment, but it was different from how they'd work on television and closer to US style tag wrestling. Still no hot tag, but the beatdown was there. The other difference from television was that after the bout Brian Crabtree encouraged the youngsters to get their heat back with a bit of retaliation -- double teaming the doctor and removing his mask. That's a far cry from "a hand for the losers," and a reminder that the halls were where you had chain matches and bloody brawls.

Ishii/Nakamura was a decent bout. Like most NJPW matches, the body of the match was nothing to write home about, but once it got into the stretch run there were some great spots. I loved the Ishii dropkick while Nakamura was doing his coked up pose. Once again, an armbar should have finished it right there and then, but NJPW wont end matches with submissions. The exchanges that followed were good, but give me that submission once in a while.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shunsuke Nakamura (8/3/14) * Some basic matwork to start with. The more Tanahashi I watch, the more he reminds me of Shawn Michaels. I'm sure Michaels could do a decent side headlock takedown as well, and not much else. * They go through the motions of having a great match, but if you're going to base a match around running strikes then Tanahashi will always be at a disadvantage because he has to rely so much on that sling blade of his, which is more of a takedown than a strike. I was going to complain about him using signature moves as transitions, because it makes the other guy look stupid for getting caught in your signature stuff again, but I was specifically thinking of the leg whip and then they did a variation on it with a short dropkick instead and a great nearfall at the end where Nakamura stepped his way out of it. * The match really could have done with more suplexes or mid-range moves. Because they work these matches in stages, i.e. now's the opening stretch, now's the finish stretching, it was like they edited that chunk out to whittle down the time. * I could not abide by the finish. Nakamura hit this crazy, reckless looking knee to the back of Tanahashi's head, then avoided the leg whip and delivered another running knee, and these were great nearfalls. Then Tanahashi countered into a sort of botched drop toe hold and pinned him with a Japanese leg roll clutch hold. Well that was a bunch of bollocks. One guy gets knocked into la la land and the other can't kick out of a soft pin. Not abiding by that. * I'd go *** on this. The crowd were into it, but I'm not sure they match up that well.

Dave Finlay/Skull Murphy vs. Alan Kilby/Steve Logan (11/9/82) Dave Finlay/Skull Murphy vs. Johnny Wilson/Peter Wilson (11/9/82) Man, it's night and day between Murphy's late 80s work and his work here as one half of the Riot Squad. This Murphy is awesome. Anyone who's seen Finlay's early work knows he had a mean streak, and Murphy complemented that perfectly as his hoodlum partner. It was toned down for TV, but in the halls it must have been nasty. Murphy was leaner here and much quicker. He took more bumps, but it was his offence that impressed me. Like Finlay it was based around elbows and knee drops (w/ the occasional punch thrown in), and it was all so well timed and tight looking. If you'd asked me what to expect, I would've said Murphy will drag things down, but he made the bouts better. The psychology wasn't the greatest as in both tags the Riot Squad managed to isolate one of their opponents and take their falls rather methodically, but the work was excellent. I wish they'd gone with a proper big match main event for the tournament final, but these are shortcomings with the booking. At least they put a weight limit on the tag teams so that the fatties couldn't participate. 1982 Skull Murphy was a nice revelation, now I want to see if he was this good all the time or if it was Finlay rubbing off on him.

Crush Girls vs. Marine Wolves, 2/3 falls (4/27/89) This was the last big Crush Girls match of the era (aside from their retirement match exhibition), so I suppose you could argue it needs to be on a yearbook for historical importance, but talk about a match that did nothing for me this time round. To my mind, the match bombs from the outset. The do the stock AJW opening of hitting a finisher straight away only this time it pays off. Hokuto pins Chigusa with a german suplex to take a shock 1-nil lead, which might have worked as a hook if they'd bothered to put it over more. Chigusa is ticked off, but Hokuto is nonchalant. With the amount of emotion in your typical Joshi bout, you'd think the Marine Wolves would be ecstatic, but it's not even understated. It's just badly under-sold. From there, Chigusa looks to get retribution, but the work never reaches the level of their singles match and neither partner adds much. Minami is sloppy and not only is she devoid of personality, she can't even channel her energy into a core motivation like trying to protect her partner. Asuka is just boring. Her work from '89 has reminded me of why I never liked her. What really kills this match, though, is the dueling headlock sequence, which is hands down one of the worst things I've seen in all my years of watching tapes. I don't even want to describe it save for it involves a continuing headlock among wrestlers tagging in and out and ends, IIRC, with the Crush Girls putting a headlock on Minami or Hokuto at the same time. It lasts for about five minutes and is just the worst thing ever. And again, why did the Crush Girls win here? Why did they retire as WWWA champs? Why send a message to the schoolgirls that the next generation of girls aren't as good as your idols? This was just crap all round.

Sounds like you watched their match from last year's Power Struggle show.

The finish was a Go 2 Sleep followed by a penalty kick.

Kung Fu vs. Javier Cruz (3/88) Kung Fu, you'll remember, was a guy who got over in the 70s doing a kung fu gimmick and became a star with "Los Coliseinos" (EMLL), then jumped to the UWA and worked the independents for a decade before returning to EMLL and getting a nice little push as a middleweight. In fact, he got a nice little push right up until '91 or so, even after Atlantis had unmasked him. Here he was the reigning NWA World Middleweight Champion having regained the title from Dandy on 10/7/87. Cubsfan has a record of a 2/19 Arena Coliseo title defence against Cruz, but it's not this bout. This appears to be a mano a mano that happened at some point either before or after the title bout.

Negro Casas/El Satanico/Bestia Salvaje vs. El Dandy/Ultimo Dragon/Apolo Dantes, CMLL 8/14/92 I mistakenly thought this was part of the Casas vs. Dandy feud, but it was actually part of the build to the Bestia/Dandy title match, the Anniversary Show hair match, and the Casas vs. Dragon title fight. Dandy was such a stud he had issues with all three rudos here, but the match has got to rank as a disappointment given the talent involved. The footage was joined in progress during a lackadaisical fall where the rudos did nothing but pose, and there were no little moments where the lucha was brilliant and the workers were gods. Dandy was lugging around a pot belly and Satanico was on the heavy side himself. In retrospect, you could see that the Anniversary match wouldn't be good as Satanico looked out of form and they just weren't clicking. As for Casas' performance, his deal here was that he was afraid of getting in the ring with Ultimo. He tried getting the upperhand with some kicks of his own, but when that didn't work out he did his best to avoid any one-on-one confrontations. A couple of times they wound up on the outside and Casas would scamper away at the first sign of trouble, even if it meant defending himself with a camera cable. When the technicos made their comeback in the segunda caida, Casas refused to enter the ring, and when he finally did square off with Ultimo in the third, he ate a german suplex. The rudos tried to bum rush the show and steal the tercera, but Ultimo broke up their pinning combinations with a flurry of kicks and looked to be cleaning house when Casas fouled him. Which to Casas' mind was the only kick that mattered. Their exchanges weren't as good as in the '93 trios, but they still meshed fairly well given Casas' peculiar way of selling Japanese offense.

Honma/Shibata was a lot of fun. Just a balls to the wall 10 minute bout. Not much in the way of psychology, but a couple of neat transitions. I liked the way Shibata broke Honma's resistance at the end with the short uppercut.

Mark I think is okay, but my wife cut a promo on me?

Isha Israel/Jean Corne vs. Les Blousons Noirs (Claude Gessat/Marcel Mannevau) (4/21/60) This was a looong Les Blousons Noirs tag match. They actually started out wrestling but it wasn't long before they were up to their usual tricks, and boy did they have a bunch of them. Mannevau's favourite trick was to get a wrestler in their corner and work a bunch of cheap shots from the apron, then pretend he was holding onto the tag rope. It was like a silent comedy with the ref playing the constable and Manneavau twirling the tag rope with his fingers. He'd whistle at the sky, minding his own business, then as soon as the officer's back was turned he'd throw another cheap shot. It reminded me of Steve Logan and Mick McManus and I can see why Les Blousons Noirs were over in the UK. Isha Israel and Jean Corne were fine stylists, similar to the reoccurring tag team of Cesca and Chemoul, but this was more of a fight than a wrestling bout and most of what they dished out was retaliatory. There were also a lot of comedy spots with Jean Louis Maresse, who was the French Max Ward and got involved a lot. In the second fall, Manneavau tore his pant leg off, which the crowd found tremendously entertaining. I like a good bit of comedy, but Maresse chews the scenery at times. I've noticed that the opening fall, or premiere manche as it's called in French (see, I'm learning something), is often the longest fall in these tag matches with the logic being that as the wrestlers tire the falls become shorter. The opening fall here was a good 20 minutes plus and a match in itself really. Unfortunately, the third fall is missing, which is a bugger after 40 minutes of tape watching, but I still thought this was a good match and fun to watch the Blousons Noirs again, especially Manneavau who I think would win a lot of love for his performance here.

One good thing -- the pay-off to the Atlantis/Villano III mask feud was some of the better booking CMLL's done.

It's the sumo mentality of finishing at least 8-7, and really it's been that way since the earliest round-robin tournaments.

Gedo & Jedo are doing it in the context of tournament. WWE do it week to week. Surely, most people are curious about who's going to win the tournament. I want to see Shibata take it out, but who knows. I think it's extremely effective booking. It's just a shame it's such a niche audience.

Francis Louis vs. Bob Plantin (1968) This was the match that had people thinking it was George Kidd vs. Modesto Aledo, which did take place in the 60s but at the Royal Albert Hall in London. To add to the confusion, ALPRA uploaded it twice, the first time with the correct names and the second time calling it "LUTTE CLASSIQUE à l ' Elysée Montmartre en 1968." L'Élysée Montmartre being the famous music venue. While it may not be rare George Kidd footage, it's still a decent enough bout, though nothing too revolutionary when it comes to studying lutte. There's a lot of cool wristlock takedowns and other tricked out moves, but loses focus a bit with a running joke between Plantin and referee Jean Louis Maresse.

The bar for wrestling tournaments is pretty low. The 1995 Champions Carnival and the 1993 Japan Grand Prix had decent reps back in the day.

Skull Murphy vs. Jim Moser (1/26/88) Here's another reason why wrestling lost television: too many veterans. While it was great to see Moser back on television and everything, he was a guy who had been kicking round since the early 60s. When you compare that to the Killer Bees, or whatever random WWF was airing, British wrestling looked outdated and obsolete and it was hard to imagine it surviving in this format as the pensioners began to drop. You could get away with it in the 70s because there were so many television stars, but ASW really diluted the talent pool and it says a lot that Joint Promotions were booking guys like Moser. The match was marginally better than the Singh bout, at least when Moser was on offence, but it was heavily clipped and had a shitty finish where Murphy won two straight with his gator submission without bothering to tease a Moser comeback.

Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. Skull Murphy (3/5/87) I thought I'd watch a bunch of matches from a guy I've never really given a fair shake to, and that's Skull Murphy, but after watching this I'm not so sure I should. This has to be one of the most dull, flat and boring WoS bouts I've seen. Murphy is a brawler and a quasi Alan Dennison style strongman, but he puts nothing into his strikes not even a grunt or a groan or a pantomime "grrrr." The length wasn't an issue here as they got plenty of time for a 1987 bout; it was just such a shitty caricature of a heel vs. face bout. It wasn't all Murphy's fault, as Singh, whom I like, was about as thrilling as stepping in dog turd. He wasn't about to take Murphy places he wouldn't ordinarily go, hence the mediocrity. I should probably eject now on this little mini-project, but I'll give it a few more matches to see if Murphy surprises me.

The first trios in the build-up to this is so very, very good.

Y'know, I never really thought about that. That is annoying.

If you ask me, people watch too much maestro Casas and not enough of his vintage work, so here's a new feature on the Great Lucha blog that will hopefully encourage people to check out his glory years. Ciclon Ramirez, Oro, Ultimo Dragon vs. Bestia Salvaje, Felino, Negro Casas, CMLL 3/12/93 This was part of the three-week build to the 3/26 UWA World Middleweight Championship bout between Casas and El Ultimo Dragon. Casas vs. Ultimo Dragon isn't the first match up that springs to mind when you think of guys who click, but this was some seriously great TV. Ultimo is a guy who I've always said wasn't very good in his early Mexico runs, but I need to take a good look at what I wrote and apologise to my parents because this was shit hot. The match started off with a series of lucha exchanges between Ultimo Dragon and Casas, Bestia and Oro and Felino and Ciclon Ramirez. None of the match ups were show stealing, but deliberately so, as they were really giving folks a tease of how good these match ups could be. And as teases go, this was the desert before you've had the main. Just decadent. Halfway through the primera caida, they teased the dissension between Casas and Felino that would eventually lead to the great towel throwing angle, but here they attacked the technicos instead and I was reminded of how inventive rudo beat downs used to be. Casas went after Ultimo on the outside and split his legs like a wishbone. As the rudos came up with new ways to work over Oro, Dragon had his leg stretched out over the front row seats receiving attention. He was in no mood to head to the back and instead hobbled over to the technico corner. The second fall technico comeback ended up being Ultimo hooking Casas' leg, dragging him through the ropes and kicking the shit out of him until he would up with his leg stuck between the front row seats. It was a tremendous fiery comeback from the technicos, which of course the rudos claimed was too violent. The finish was the most fired up three way moonsault/hurricanrana/enzuigiri pinfall combination you'll ever see; and while Casas' enzuigiri bump probably wouldn't fly in Ultimo's homeland, his face plant was done with all the panache of Ric Flair in the Royal Rumble. A schmoz seemed on the cards when Casas faked a foul in the final caida. It was touch and go for a second as the refs gave serious thought to disqualifying Ultimo, but sanity prevailed and we got to see Ciclon's tope and Oro's top rope plancha; the tope alone being worth the price of admission. Finally, it came down to Ultimo v. Negro, and they worked a classic sudden death exchange. The speed with which Casas moved and the height he got on each bump was breathtaking. The match could have swung either way, but Ultimo came up trumps on a dragon suplex and Arena Mexico lost its collective shit. Like I said, Casas vs. Dragon -- not a natural match-up -- but this was sensational and Vintage Casas of the Day is off to a very good start.

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Akira Hokuto (3/19/89) This is raw footage without any commentary that lets you hear how over Chigusa was even at the end of her run. It's all in the past now, but I wish Chigusa had gone ahead with the Kandori match she flirted with. That would have been a great match if both participants had been willing to make the other look good. Hokuto didn't stand much of a chance here, but she gave it a real stab. Chigusa had to dig a little deeper than she would have expected and there was a bit more sting in her offence. The finish was especially great and really put over the effort Hokuto put in. One thing Japanese crowds love is someone who doesn't quit and they managed to portray that. A very effective veteran vs. young girl match.

Jean Ménard vs. Pierre Mercier Colour footage of a house show match. Pierre Mercier was a skinny young fella and this was like the catch equivalent of those 1980s World of Sport bouts where veterans would wrestle the "boy apprentices" such as Kid McCoy or Richie Brooks. Menard showed his class once again, but it was a fairly straight forward match and not a particularly great carry or anything like that.