ohtani's jacket

Undertaker losing made it seem like anything could happen in the main event and helped those near falls at the end have a bit more scare to them. It helped the show a lot more than an Undertaker victory would have. It was a clever bit of booking even if the match was dead.

It was a better show than it looked on paper and was a memorable Wrestlemania at the least. I was surprised by how clean the finishes were all night long.

They milked the nearfalls well at the end.

Bret looks even more thrilled.

That was like a funeral.

How bizarre.

Another narrative heavy match in front of a crowd who want to pop for highspots.

I thought Warrior was going to run to the ring.

Cena/Wyatt was okay, but they would have been better off working a straight match than all that psycho babble.

Look at that Ozzo with his flag.

The psychology in this match is too cute for the audience.

Look at the quality of the AJW 1988 and 89 classes and then 1990 onwards. While they aired in prime time, they'd advertise the tryouts along the bottom of the screen. The number of girls they had trying out was significantly higher in the mid-80s than in the 90s and the quality of the girls chosen was higher. New Japan's best talent came on the back of Inoki being a big TV draw in the 70s and New Japan's popularity in the early 80s. Baba seemed to prefer guys from an amateur background or from judo or sumo, but TV was a factor and I think the promotions should have worked harder at keeping earlier timeslots or at getting them back.

I read that the Arion run was derailed somewhat by ITV going on strike during the autumn. Looking at the results, he worked for Joint up until the end of January, 1980. He seems to have been booked against Pat Roach quite often, similar to how they used Roach against Quinn. Apparently, Arion got huge heat in the halls the same as the Joynson match. Whoever was booking this stuff at the time, whether it was McManus or Marino, was keen on foreign heels. Aside from Arion and Quinn, they had Adnan Al-Kaissie and his controversial sleeper hold in the same time period.

Pirata Morgan, Babe Face y Cien Caras vs. La Fiera, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (September 1986) This is a fairly straightforward match that likely took place in July of '86. The only confirmed date I have for the trios matches leading into the Babe Face vs. Fiera hair match is La Fiera, Ringo Mendoza y Tony Benetto vs. Babe Face, Satanico y MS-1 from 7/18/86. Since there's not much to talk about with this one, I thought I'd tell the story of how Morgan lost his eye. In December of 1981, when Morgan was still an unknown, he was wrestling a match against El Jalisco in Guadalajara. They traded the first two falls and the match was going pretty well when Morgan launched himself at Jalisco who was on the floor outside the ring. I'm not sure who was to blame, but Jalisco was out of position for the tope and Morgan crashed head first into the ground. The impact of the crash burst Morgan's eye open. Fans who were in the front row were sprayed with blood, and when they looked down they saw Morgan was a bloody horror and had no eye. Medical assistance arrived and in the panic it was feared that Morgan might die as Sangre India had done in 1979. Morgan survived, but he needed surgery to remove the remaining part of his eye. When Morgan returned to the ring, he had to wear an eye patch to cover his missing eye, and used the disability to cultivate the Pirata Morgan gimmick, naming himself after the Welsh 16th century pirate Henry Morgan, one of the most ruthless privateers of his era.

All Japan lost theirs in April 1988. New Japan was in April 1993. I don't know the exact date for All Japan Women, but their prime time slot ended in October of '86 and I guess they moved to midnight after Dump and the Crush Girls retired.

He really is awesome. This is great up until Vince McMahon.

Jackie Turpin vs. Alan Dennison (7/11/79) Just the final round. Looked like a fun bout with Dennison doing spots like Turpin being unable to break his wrestler's bridge. Tony St. Clair vs. Colin Joynson (7/11/79) The late 70s were Tony St. Clair's peak and 1979 may well have been St. Clair at his best. He was quick for a heavyweight and this was a match which showcased his speed and athleticism. Colin Joynson, who Walton was besotted with calling the "little tank" on this occasion, was game for an up-tempo bout and so there was a lot more rope running in this than you'd usually find in a heavyweight wrestling bout. Joynson really was tank-like, so St. Clair's arm drags (or rolls as Walton called them) looked awesome. Really good, energetic heavyweight bout. Mal Sanders vs. Chato Pastor (6/27/79) Joined in progress. Sanders was the new young superstar at the time and had the type of annoying habits you'd associate with a new guy getting a big push. Pastor was fun, but not the superworker you want a visiting Spaniard to be. To their credit, the crowd were really into it and completely behind Sanders, but I felt like I've seen this kind of thing done better. Tony St. Clair vs. Lenny Hurst (6/27/79) Another good St. Clair bout. Hurst is a bit of an underrated grappler as he's another who wasn't too flamboyant, but he was a good opponent for St. Clair and they were able to do the quick, all-action stuff that made Tony popular with the crowds. Spiros Arion vs. Romany Riley (10/30/79) This was the twilight of Spiros Arion's career. He was doing this gimmick where he claimed to be the World Heavyweight champion with Walton actually referring to him as the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight champion. The belt he brought to the ring ended up becoming the UK version of a World Heavyweight championship and was taken to All-Star when Quinn jumped, but at this point they were pretending it was a US belt. Because Quinn had just had a successful run that culminated with the big Wembley show, Arion did a similar anti-British gimmick where he got on the house mic and ran down the local talent, even aligning himself with Quinn, who they planned to bring back in the new year. Unfortunately, his accent was a little thick and he didn't speak into the mic properly, but once the bout got going he drew tremendous heat for his heathen all-in wrestling style. Riley put up a fight, but he was fodder here and Arion soon ran rough shot over him. Colin Joynson vs. Spiros Arion (11/13/79) This was crazy. One of the most heated WoS bouts I've ever seen. Arion did the same schtick as above, but this time he claimed he'd beat Joynson within two rounds. He did his all-in brawling and somehow bust Joynson's nose wide open. Then he took the pad off the corner post and rammed Joynson's head into it. Well, the crowd didn't like this. They were on their feet and swarming the ring. More than a few guys had their jackets off and were ready to jump Arion. The only other time I've seen this sort of reaction was with the Caribbean Sunshine Boys. Joynson was the victim, but he was punching guys off the apron to stop them from entering the ring. Finally, Big Daddy came down and cleared Arion from the ring, and one kid who kept trying to enter the ring finally made it through the ropes and tried to raise Daddy's arm, but Daddy being the prick he was shoved the guy out of the way. The ring area was just a swarm of people as Walton closed out the show. Daddy vs. Arion was something they were obviously teasing, but Bridges took his title the following month and that was the end of Arion's run.

The Cena/Wyatt match has the most potential to be good.

It wasn't just All Japan that went in that direction. Most Japanese wrestling ended up that way by the end of the 90s. The promotions lacked fresh match-ups and were bereft of new talent. When you run the same matches over and over again, the tendency is to go longer and cram even more moves into your bouts. Japanese crowds pop big for nearfalls, and they went after those pops. The promotions really made a mistake when they lost their early TV time slots. They had this idea that they could reap even greater rewards from VHS sales, and had a sizeable hardcore live audience at the time, but they lost that exposure with the great public, especially the youth, and that really hurt their recruitment of young talent once wrestling faded from public view. Plus the people in charge were getting older and hadn't really set up proper succession plans. From All Japan's point of view, Akiyama wasn't enough. They needed three or four other guys to take over the mantle from the 90s guys. Recruitment was always harder for All Japan than New Japan even in the company's heyday, so it really hurt when the pinch came.

Ringo Mendoza, Atlantis y Ultraman vs. Satanico, Masakre y MS-1 (September 1986) This was the third incarnation of the Infernales that began after Satanico and Pirata Morgan had a falling out, which isn't that surprising since one claimed to be "El Número Uno" and the other "El Mejor Luchador del Mundo" (the best wrestler in the world.) That altercation not only led to hair matches between Morgan and MS-1 and Morgan and Satanico, but a whole new rudo faction known as Los Bucaneros. The original version of the Bucaneros featured Morgan's brother Hombre Bala and a slightly repackaged Jerry Estrada, who swapped the Iron Maiden t-shirts for an eye patch and pirate bandana. The Infernales replaced Morgan with a wrestler by the name of Masakre. Masakre was a guy who was something of a late bloomer. Originally, he intended to be a fireman and was only interested in wrestling as a means of staying in shape. He trained for nearly five years under Raul Reyes before training at the Arena Mexico facilities with Rafael Salamanca. Finally, he made his debut at Pista Arena Revolución on 5/1/83 and was soon given a push as MS-2. That fell by the wayside when EMLL saw the potential in MS-1, and Masakre's career floundered for a few years before he finally got his big break joining the Infernales. He was unmasked by The Kiss, a wrestler from Baja California, on the 8/29/86 Arena Mexico show, and from that point on was a perfect fit for the Infernales as the same type of tall, ruggedly handsome rudo as MS-1. Together they won the Mexican National Tag Team Championship from Los Hermanos Dinamita in March of '87 and began a new chapter in the Infernales' history. Eventually there would be another bloody falling out, but we'll get to that later. Aside from some old rivalries, I don't think there was anything particular important about the match-up here. The last few minutes of the Satanico/Morgan hair match aired on Japanese TV but were fairly disappointing. No blood and they made a real hash of the finish.The match took place on the 12/5 Arena Mexico show in a double billing with the Atlantis/Hombre Bala mask match.

Steve Grey vs. Tim Fitzmaurice (1/9/79) Fitzmaurice was a small little Irish lad who Walton said wrestled like a terrier. World of Sport joined this after Fitzmaurice had already scored a surprise opening fall, which kind of killed the dynamic the workers were going for, but even down a fall this was a walk in the park for Steve Grey. Marty Jones vs. Steve Logan (1/30/79) One thing we're lucky about with WoS footage is that we get a lot of Jones' prime. This is from right smack in the middle of Jones' best years and was a nice, solid bout that I enjoyed. Logan brought his usual bag of tricks and spent most of the bout pissing Jones off, and if you know Marty Jones you'll know he had a filthy temper. Despite it getting heated, Jones was able to use his superior athleticism to get the better of Logan here. The only thing I didn't like was Logan getting straight up after the winning pinfall as though nothing had happened. Other than that it was a good bout. It wasn't off the charts like it could have been if they'd really ratcheted it up, but considering this was 1979 Steve Logan it was pretty good. Chato Pastor vs. Gary Wensor (6/12/79) Pastor was this little Spanish guy who did some cool flips and had interesting ways of attacking the body. Gary Wensor was a much bigger guy who wasn't flashy but a good pro. This was a catchweight contest to put Pastor over before he took on Mal Sanders for the European Middleweight championship. It didn't really work at getting him over, and he probably would have been better off working someone in his own weight class as he struggled on both of his pinfalls, but it's always fun seeing a new, relatively unknown Euro worker. Wayne Bridges vs. Ray Steele (6/27/79) I'm probably in the small minority of people who enjoy this type of match. This was no frills heavyweight British wrestling. Neither guy has much in the way of personality. Bridges I'm not a huge fan of, and Steele I can give or take depending on his opponent. They didn't do much to try to excite the large Wembley Arena crowd like almost all of the workers usually did, but the wrestling was good, there were some nice holds, and the highspots they did work looked great.

My daughter was a huge fan of a Japanese animation that anthropomorphises food. I guess that's why she's a picky eater.

IIRC, the fans voted for this match-up.

I'm looking for: *MARRIAGE* Savage vs. Elizabeth from the payroll. Could be a lost classic, or a Freudian slip.

Espanto Jr. vs. El Hijo del Santo (Mask vs. Mask) (8/31/86) You’ll recall that a wrestler by the name of Jesus Andrade asked the original Espanto II, Fernando Cisneros Carrillo, for permission to carry on the Espanto name and was granted that permission during 1984. Immediately, Andrade was put into a feud with the son of the Espanto family’s greatest rival, and from the moment they opposed one another a mask match was inevitable. The history here goes back a long way. Los Hermanos Espanto (Espanto I y II) originally tagged with El Santo while Santo was still a rudo. When the time came to turn Santo, it was the Espantos who did the dirty work. On a Friday night show at Arena Mexico, June 22nd, 1962, the team of Rito Romero, Rayo de Jalisco and Henry Pilusso showed Los Hermanos Espanto and El Santo up in an embarrassing two falls to nil loss. Espanto II was so livid with Santo that he attacked him after the bout. A melee ensued and Santo fought back, leaving Espanto II bloodied and bruised; his mask a mess. In true lucha fashion, Santo was abandoned by his rudo partners and left alone with the technicos he was still offside with, and on July 5th he made his debut as a face tagging with Pilusso against the Espanto brothers. (In other versions of events, the details differ slightly, but the upshot is that Espanto II turned on Santo, thereby turning Santo face.) Santo’s face turn was an instant success, and he began regularly tagging with the biggest technico names against the Espantos, who brought a third brother, Espanto III, into the fold. Rubén Juárez ended up taking Espanto II’s mask at the 30th Anniversary show on September 9th, 1963, but just over a month later Santo took the mask of Espanto I in one of the bloodiest Arena Mexico mask matches in memory, dubbed “La Lucha de la muerte” by the magazines. A match that is famous for Santo being so beaten and battered that after the match he turned to known lucha aficionado Don Garcia Erastus and asked who’d won. The Espantos continued to tag together successfully after their unmaskings until tragedy struck as it so often does in these lucha stories. After working a show in Monterrey on May 30th, 1968, Espanto I and another wrestler were shot and killed by a canteen owner during a barroom brawl after he refused to serve them any more drinks. The owner then fled and was on the run for eight years until he was finally caught on March 16th, 1975; however he hung himself in his cell before he could be sentenced. Espanto II was devastated by the loss of his best friend and shirked the limelight after his death, though he continued to wrestle in the Northern part of Mexico and occasionally in other territories. When Andrades took on the lineage, this rematch of the “Fight of Death” was the inevitable course of action, but the El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto feud didn’t finish here, as we’ll see as the set continues.