ohtani's jacket

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.

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.