ohtani's jacket

Depends where. Jerry Lewis always had good reviews in France, including from serious critics. At the same time, Louis de Funes was not highly regarded at all, and now 30 years after his death suddenly the serious critics are doing essays on the guy. Go figure. I've only seen the films he did with Bourvil and Gerald Oury, Le Corniaud and La Grande Vadrouille, but he seemed like an amusing little fellow. Comedy often gets shafted by critics. You didn't see too much written in English about Cantinflas or Toto.

I found this on a blog: "Below is a list of the 25 directors with the most votes, followed by how many films they have in the top 100 and how many of the votes went toward films in the top 100. 1.Hitchcock – 318 votes (4 films accounting for 281 of those votes) 2.Godard 233? (4 films, 161) 3.Welles 231 (3 films, 203) 4.Ozu 189 (2 films, 157) 5.Renoir 179 (3 films, 140) 6. Ford 158 (1 film, 78) 6. Dreyer 158 (3 films, 138) 8.Kubrick 157 (2 films, 115) 9.Tarkovsky 153 (3 films, 127) 10.Bresson 149 (3 films, 96) 11.Coppola 145 (3 films, 144) 12.Bergman 143 (4 films, 108) 13.Murnau 134 (1 film, 93) 14.Fellini 129 (2 films, 97) 15.Kurosawa 127 (2 films, 89) 16.Bunuel; 114 (1 film, 17) 17.Antonioni 110 (2 films, 65) 18.Chaplin 98 (2 films, 43) 19.Scorsese 97 (2 films, 66) 20.Lynch 92 (2 films, 63) 21.Lang 91 (2 films, 60) 22.Eisenstein 88 (1 film, 63) EDIT: 22 (tie) Hawks 88 (1 film, 24) 23.Mizoguchi 85 (2 films, 54) 24.Powell, Pressburger 84 (2 films, 35) 25.Rossellini 83 (1 film, 32)" My feeling is that Ford remains highly regarded but that critics gravitate towards one film. I wonder if a more interesting example of what you're talking about is comedians like Jerry Lewis or Harold Lloyd who were ignored by critics for a long time. Or directors who did women's pictures like Douglas Sirk.

On the last Sight and Sound poll, critics had The Searchers at 7 and directors had it at 48.

Since when did film critics dismiss John Ford?

In Race's book, he says Vader had more natural ability than anyone he managed and was the most agile big guy he'd ever seen. He says: "In fact, he might be the best big man to ever enter the ring. Just don't tell him I said it." His problem with Vader was getting him to hold back.

Andre the Giant y Cien Caras vs. Alfonso Dantes, Herodes y Sangre Chicana (1981) Andre was touring Mexico fairly regularly at this point. He’d stay for about a week and work for EMLL and UWA on alternate nights. This is a match from Arena Coliseo de Guadalajara and appears to be an EMLL booking. It aired on Jalisco television and is reportedly the only time one of Andre’s bouts aired on Mexican television. Andre was frequently booked in handicap matches while touring, sometimes two on one, three on one, anywhere upwards of four on one. The most famous Andre moment in Mexico was when he headlined the 1984 UWA Anniversary show against El Canek at the Palacio de lose Desportes, a large indoor sports arena that was built for the 1968 Olympics. The match drew a large crowd of 25,000 and is the bout where Canek body slammed the Giant. His partner for this bout was Cien Caras, the oldest of Los Hermanos Dinamita, a trios he formed in the mid-to-late 80s with brothers Mascara Año 2000 and Universo 2000. Caras, an Arena Coliseo de Guadalajara regular at this point, would go on to play a major part in the lucha television boom with both CMLL and AAA, headlining two of the biggest shows in lucha libre history, CMLL’s 57th Anniversary show against Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. and the inaugural Triplemania show against Konnan. In 1981, he was still a masked technico, who’d taken the scalps of Alfonso Dantes and Goro Tanaka in hair matches and won his first major title, the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship, in 1980. On the rudo side, Dantes and Herodes were regular rivals of Caras in the heavyweight division. Sangre Chicana (black tights with red stripe) was a middleweight to light heavyweight and not a natural rival of Caras’, though their paths crossed numerous times, particularly when Caras turned and became a rudo. Chicana rose to fame in 1977 when he lost his mask to Fishman at Arena Mexico in a triple threat match with El Cobarde I. This feud catapulted him to stardom and he was enjoying an extremely successful rudo run at this point, including stints with the NWA World Middleweight Championship. He’d get even bigger the following year in 1982 when he jumped from EMLL to UWA and resumed his feud with Fishman. Herodes (red trunks, awesome beard) has a rep as one of the great “lost” rudo workers of the 80s, though more footage of him surfaced in time for this set. Prior to the set, he was regarded as a great bumper and superb base for young technico flyers like Stuka, but he was also a hair match worker of note and a championship winning wrestler, taking the Mexican National Heavyweight belt from Caras in ’82. Alfonso Dantes (red trunks with white trim, no beard) was an older worker than either Chicana or Herodes. He was a star from the mid-to-late 60s through the 70s, where he spent a large portion of the decade in the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship title picture, as well as the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship, a belt he held in 1981 (and lost to Babe Face.) Like Herodes, he had a strong reputation as a worker, particularly for working bigger than his size, which due to his physique earned him the nickname of “El Tanque,” which means “The Tank.” His most famous feud was with El Halcon, but his career at this point was intertwined with the other wrestlers in the ring. He’d lost his hair to Caras at Arena Coliseo de Guadalajara at some point in this push of Caras’ and twice tagged with Chicana in hair matches. He was the father of 90s wrestler Apolo Dantes.

Might as well cross post these: Matt D asked me if I could start doing this. I'm not the most qualified to give lucha history lessons as there are plenty of people who know more about it than me, but I'll try my best. Feel free to suggest any corrections or suggestions. Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80) Gran Hamada (green trunks) was one of the first New Japan trainees and came from a strong judo background, where he fought for one of the top universities in Japan and was a candidate for the 1972 Olympics. Due to his lack of size, he was sent to Mexico to train with the newly formed LLI promotion in 1975 and learn the lucha style. Despite having a hard time with everyday life, Hamada soon established himself in Mexico and by the time he returned to Japan in 1979 he already had a family in Mexico, which is why he split so much of his time between the two countries. Hamada had a rivalry at the time with Perro Aguayo (white trunks), one of the biggest stars in lucha libre history. Aguayo is famous for his blading and for being arguably one of the greatest brawlers in lucha history, but Aguayo vs. Hamada was, for the most part, a title match feud. This tag match from the famous El Toreo bullring was sandwiched between a pair of title matches the men had. The first was a match for the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, which Aguayo took from Hamada on 4/22/79. The second was a title defence of Hamada’s UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship on 5/25/80, which Aguayo also took from Hamada. They would go on to have an even fiercer rivalry for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, which would trade hands several times in both Mexico and Japan and their rivalry crossed promotions from UWA to New Japan to Shinma’s original UWF. Eventually, they would become tag partners in both Mexico and Hamada’s UWF promotion. Sayama (tights with a stripe) was on his own excursion at the time and had tasted his first success in Mexico by winning the NWA World Middleweight Championship from Ringo Mendoza on 9/9/79, a belt he lost to El Satanico on 3/28/80, a few weeks before this tag took place. He would move to England by the end of the year and have a run under a quasi-Bruce Lee gimmick as “Sammy Lee” before heading back to Japan to done the famous Tiger Mask gimmick. Aguayo’s partner Babe Face (red and white trunks) was one of the original UWA wrestlers and a hated rudo also known for his bloody hair matches. This was on the undercard of an Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh match for the UWA World Heavyweight title, which is why it was filmed by a Japanese TV crew.

I haven't seen enough 1979 WWWF to rightly have an opinion on who the MVP was, but if we're talking about who I'd like to see more of, I'd take Valentine over Patterson in a heartbeat. Patterson looked old to me, and not in a "I can't believe this guy is still so good" kind of way. I only saw two of the matches but they followed along the same lines -- early brawling segment, ponderous armwork by Dibiase and brass knuckles finish. Some of Patterson's bumping was okay, but nothing out of this world. They're not really proper matches, just the equivalent of a throwaway TV bout. As Jerry says, I'm missing the context, but it's more a case of not seeing how Patterson was the MVP than feeling that he wasn't.

Man, the Dibiase/Patterson matches I just watched were underwhelming to say the least. I can't believe we lost Brick over sub 10 minute past-his-prime Pat Patterson. And what's with his Australian sounding lisp? I'm not feeling this MVP stuff, but more power to your podcast.

Which points?

I always disliked that Four Horsemen logo.

I want to come back to this as I was dealing with a sick child yesterday. There is enough footage available to poke holes in Dandy's career, it's just that most people haven't seen it. Dandy is a new discovery for a lot of people and right now they're only watching his best stuff. With time people may develop a more balanced view of Dandy, though it's unlikely that they're going to watch a bunch of non-pimped lucha TV. Eddy has always been overrated largely because he was a favourite of so many during the Monday Night Wars era and his athletic prime coincided with the arrival of the internet. Then, after he finally adapted to the WWE style, he had that final run of his that was the icing on the cake. I like Eddy and I'm more than willing to be critical of Dandy, but Dandy's '89-90 peak ('91 really, but he was being de-emphasised that year) is a better run than Eddy had in his entire career and his post-peak years where he gained weight throughout the 90s had a far greater output than Eddy's New Japan and WCW years. Even on the indy scene from '01-04, Dandy was pretty much on the same level as Eddy. If Dandy had been in '89 shape and they'd pushed him to the cruiserweight title in WCW, instead of heavier and less athletic, it wouldn't make much difference to the comparison. I don't think Eddy winning the Best of the Super Juniors meant much, either. All it really amounted to was a title shot against Sasuke. I actually think it's Dandy's early work that's overrated. He was not a great worker prior to '88.

By this rationale, Ultimo Dragon was a better worker than El Dandy.

Enjoyed the Colon vs. Ayala feud. Ayala obviously wasn't in the same class as Hansen as a brawler, but they made up for it with plenty of blood. That shot of Colon at the end of the Texas Death Match with his face covered in blood and his features indistinguishable is one of the most insane images in wrestling history. The only match I didn't like was the Barbed Wire match. I didn't like the psychology of the heel being afraid of the gimmick and it took forever for anything to happen, then when it did the match was over. On the other hand, I was really impressed with their Loser Leaves Town match where they were able to work an excellent brawl without any props. Colon always reminds me of Harry Belafonte. He's not really a wrestler's wrestler in terms of his appearance, I find. He is one insane blader, though.

This was interesting. It didn't seem like anything else from the US in 1990. It was like a worked shoot cum puroresu love indie match a decade before you'd expect one. I didn't think it was all that well worked. Wilkins has always been average and the Kid still looked green to me. Some of the transitions were incredibly awkward and the selling was weak. Waltman wasn't really that good on the mat and Wilkins wasn't capable of carrying a guy there. Still, it was interesting to see tape watching experimenting this early in US indie wrestling.

I meant top ten all time.

Guerrero is really overrated. He had some good runs, but nothing that warranted his top 10 worker status circa '05/'06.

Giant Haystacks vs. John Quinn (Bremen 12/21/85) This was all right. I thought the psychology of John Quinn going up against Giant Haystacks was pretty sound, but it wasn't the kick-in-the-balls match that's going to get me watching a lot of Haystacks. He did throw some pretty wicked looking shots, though. And it was infinitely better than it would have been on British television. Steve Wright vs. Maske USA/Catcher in the Mask (Bamberg 4/3/83?) I don't know which name Maske went by, but it was Dave Morgan under the mask. Morgan was a solid Brit worker who spend most of his time overseas. We have footage of him from Germany, Austria and South Africa and possibly Canada. This was a decent Steve Wright showcase match with some cool Euro matwork in the early rounds. It descends into a niggly brawl with Wright getting too many payback spots for the level of niggle Morgan inflicted and shows the weakness in Wright's ability to structure matches, but if you like Wright it's worth watching. Dave Viking vs. Dave Taylor (1980s) I'm not much of a Dave Taylor fan, but this was a swank 8 minute bout. Viking was a journeyman brusier who knew how to beat people up and make it look good and Taylor sold well. Think of it as a solid WCWSN style match. Judd Harris vs. Rolo Brasil (Bamberg 4/3/83) Judd Harris was another journeyman. In fact, he was a guy who'd been on the road since the 60s. This was a similar bout to the Taylor/Viking match, but nowhere near as compelling. Harris wasn't as mobile and Brasil is decent, but not very charismatic. Pretty uneventful.

Yeah, each fall goes long and it's about a million miles removed from the Arena Mexico style at the time. If Ultimo Guerrero's had a better match, I haven't seen it.

Ultimo Guerrero vs. LA Park (4/18/04) is an awesome, awesome match. Unfortunately, it got pulled from YouTube before I had a chance to review it for my blog.

Where would you rate Los Villanos? I wish we had Los Temerarios footage from their prime. More Lobo Rubio footage would be nice. Los Bucaneros, Los Destructores and Los Intocables were all pretty solid second tier trios who grew out of the boom. I'm all for the matching outfits.

Mascara Sagrada as more bad than boring. For a long time, I considered him and Super Muneco as the two worst luchadores I'd seen, but every dog has its day and both guys have had decent performances from time to time. Count Bartelli is probably the most boring Euro worker I've come across, but he was beloved by everyone so I'm guessing his career was better at some point.

I tried taking a look at some synonyms for outsmart or outfox, but none of them sound that good with "spot" and it's generally not a big enough deal to call it a trump spot or something like that.

I didn't have a hell of a lot to add to what had already been covered in the yearbook thread, but here you go: Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000 & Sangre Chicana vs. Konnan el Barbaro, Perro Aguayo & El Rayo de Jalisco Jr, CMLL 03/01/92 This was an excellent trios. It was actually uploaded for my benefit, but I slept on it the first time presumably because I wasn't in the mood for a brawling trios. It was more of a ringside brawl than a proper match, and it was really these guys plying their stock and trade, but the lengthy heat segment was extremely well done. The main narrative thrust was Konnan vs. Caras, but the star of the show was Sangre Chicana. It was one of those matches where you've got a guy who's charisma is so palpable it's like the glue holding everything together. Here it shone through when he tried to hold onto the leg of a guy in the crowd or when he accidentally slipped from the apron and drew laughs from the crowd. There was a tremendous range in what he was capable of, as he'd do these comedy spots where he looked like some half drunk vagabond and then jaw with the crowd and raise their ire. If you want to see a guy who is to lucha what Jake the Snake is supposed to be to US psychology then Chicana is the guy, especially this older version. Everybody else was solid and what you'd expect from this crew. Konnan had a few weak moments, but this made me want to go through his main events and see if any of them are worth a damn. That may be a dangerous proposition, but it speaks highly to how good this was.