ohtani's jacket

Since Breaks only got 16% of the vote in the WON HOF voting, I thought I'd put together a rough as guts Gordy List for him. I didn't put a ton of research into this, but I thought we could use it as a starting point for the one or two Jim Breaks fans on this board. 1. Was he ever regarded as the best draw in the world? Was he ever regarded as the best draw in his country or his promotion? No, he was never regarded as the best draw in the world or in his country. As with most wrestling promotions, lightweight wrestlers were never put in a position to draw. 2. Was he an international draw, national draw and/or regional draw? It's next to impossible to get attendance figures for British shows and television ratings are also difficult to come by. The figures that we do have are in scraps. What we do know about Breaks is that he was considered one of the greatest post-war lightweights and enjoyed around two decades of success as both a lightweight and welterweight champion. During that time he became a television fixture, appearing on television upwards of ten times a year between 1970 and 1984, which was a lot for any given wrestler and a testament to his enduring popularity. He was featured on Cup Final Day four times and worked on two of the Wembley Arena shows, which were some of the biggest drawing shows in British wrestling history. He also featured prominently on Royal Albert Hall cards, fixtures which were among the biggest shows that Joint Promotions ran each year. Whether this translates into drawing power is debatable. The Joint Promotions business model meant that the wrestlers worked in crews, usually putting on three to four shows a day in different towns. This meant that the main events tended to differ depending on which workers were working which show. There was continuity between the shows in the same town and the wrestlers often did a circuit of the halls which mirrored what they were doing on TV, but for the most part the main events tended to be random match-ups similar to the majority of the TV tapings. Lightweights generally didn't feature in the main event unless it was a title match, which meant Breaks was rarely top of the bill. He enjoyed a tremendously long career and even in '84 there were no signs that his act had grown stale, but amongst wrestling fans from the 60s and 70s it's fair to say he wasn't regarded as the same level of draw as Mick McManus, Steve Logan, Jackie Pallo, Masambula and Les Kellett, who were the big five bill topping names of the pre-Daddy years, and was probably several notches below other household names as well. Therefore, realistically he probably belongs in the second tier of national draws, but again there's no evidence to prove that one way or another. 3. How many years did he have as a top draw? If we go by his television popularity, then he was a star from around 1970 until 1984. Television results from the 60s are slightly sketchier than from the 70s onward. He made his television debut around 1960 and was crowned British Lightweight champion for the first time at the end of 1963, so he would have been a known wrestler through the 60s, however the 70s was when the larger than life personalities really began to dominate television. In 1984 he jumped ship to Brian Dixon's All-Star Wrestling, but wasn't used as prominently as he had been for Joint Promotions. 4. Was he ever regarded as the best worker in the world? Was he ever regarded as the best worker in his country or in his promotion? Jim Breaks wasn't a known entity among overseas wrestling fans until old episodes of World of Sport began airing on The Wrestling Channel in 2004. This was largely because he never worked in Japan or North America. Whether that was because he didn't have a name or wasn't the type of worker promoters were looking for is unknown. Wrestlers his size generally didn't leave Europe, though there were opportunities to work in Germany, South Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and India. Breaks traveled abroad, but not extensively. He may have been satisfied running his pub or there may have simply not been any interest in him. It's notable that neither of his contemporaries Steve Grey or Johnny Saint were big travelers either, at least not during the television years. The middleweight and heavy-middleweights were much more in demand internationally. Breaks was considered one of the greatest post-war lightweights along with the likes of George Kidd, Johnny Saint and Steve Grey, therefore it's likely that he was considered one of the best wrestlers in the Britain during his peak years, but probably not the best. 5. Was he ever the best worker in his class (sex or weight)? Was he ever one of the top workers in his class? Johnny Saint was generally considered the best worker in the lightweight class after Kidd retired. This was partially down to booking. Faces were generally presented on television as superior workers to heels with the likes of Saint, Mike Marino, Bert Royal and others receiving superlative after superlative from Kent Walton. Heels like Breaks who could obvious wrestle were often lamented as being superb technicians if they could just stick to wrestling. Despite this, Breaks and Grey were considered along with Johnny Saint to be the top lightweights of their day. 6. How many years did he have as a top worker? We don't know when he became a top worker per se, but from the footage we have he looks like a top worker from '72 to '84 with the actual period probably being longer than that. 7. Was he a good worker before his prime? Was he a good worker after his prime? We only have footage of his post prime and he was decent enough. 8. Did he have a large body of excellent matches? Did he have a excellent matches against a variety of opponents? The answer to both is yes. Along with Steve Grey, he has one of the best resumes of matches from the existing World of Sport footage. In part this is because lightweights were expected to put on excellent matches and were given the latitude to, but also because they were outstanding workers. He had excellent matches against a variety of opponents including catch weight matches against workers from heavier weight classes. He also excelled at carrying the young "boy apprentices" that Joint would try to push. 9. Did he ever anchor his promotion(s)? Not his promotion. He anchored his weight class on numerous occasions and he was a regular television fixture, but he was never the anchor for the entire promotion. 10. Was he effective when pushed at the top of cards? Yes, he was extremely effective. He generated a tremendous amount of heat for his matches and was consistently one of the most over performers on the cards they ran, and he did this for more than a decade despite largely using the same schtick. Many workers and television gimmicks came and went during this period so his staying power is worth noting. 11. Was he valuable to his promotion before his prime? Was he still valuable to his promotion after his prime? It's unlikely that he had any more worth to his promotion pre-prime than any number of amateurs turned pro. Early on it appears that he was a babyface and in the five years following his first British Lightweight title victory he earned draws with top welterweights like Jack Dempsey and Jackie Pallo and wins over the likes of George Kidd and Mick McManus, so he must have of been of some worth. He was still useful to Joint Promotions in 1984, but when he jumped to All-Star Promotions for whatever reason they didn't use him as much as they might have and he rarely featured on television in the final years of wrestling on ITV. He did feature a few times on satellite television, but the show had a different format to ITV wrestling and Mark Rocco was the lead heel. 12. Did he have an impact on a number of strong promotional runs? Not directly. He was part and parcel of "the wrestling" It was the bigger stars that had an impact on promotional runs. 13. Was he involved in a number of memorable rivalries, feuds or storylines? Yes, he had numerous memorable rivalries. Wrestlers he feuded with on tape include Jon Cortez, Vic Faulkner, Dynamite Kid, Bobby Ryan, Alan Dennison, Johnny Saint, Steve Grey, Danny Boy Collins and Young David (Davey Boy Smith), but this is only the tip of the iceberg from what is available. 14. Was he effective working on the mic, working storylines or working angles? Wrestlers didn't cut promos on television until right near the end. He was effective on the house mic and at taunting Kent Walton and the crowd. He was also effective at working storylines and angles. The storylines usually revolved around title shots, which generally involved a three match format of two non-title matches and a title shot, and working gimmick matches with stipulations such as a hundred pounds for every round a young worker could stay with him. Angles usually involved either injuries or disputed finishes. Breaks was effective at putting them over. 15. Did he play his role(s) effectively during his career? Yes, he was an excellent heel. His gimmick was that he was a crybaby who would throw a tantrum whenever things didn't go his way. The crowds loved to hate him and would chant things to irritate him or throw dummies (pacifiers) into the ring to rile him. He often jawed with ringsiders and occasionally the odd overzealous fan would threaten him at ringside. He drew a tremendous amount of heat, especially when wrestlers beat him, and of the heels that regularly appeared on TV only Mick McManus and Sid Cooper got the same reactions with the same longevity. 16. What titles and tournaments did he win? What was the importance of the reigns? Breaks won the British and European Lightweight titles and the British Welterweight title. He never won the World Lightweight title, though he challenged for it numerous times. The importance of the reigns was the sheer number of times he won titles from 1963 through to 1988. He probably won a number of knockout tournaments as well as tournaments for vacant titles, but there wasn't any particularly important tournament for lightweights like there was for heavyweights. 17. Did he win many honors and awards? It's possible that he won awards from the wrestling magazines like The Wrestler, but I'm not aware of any. 18. Did he get mainstream exposure due to his wrestling fame? Did he get a heavily featured by the wrestling media? As far as I'm aware, he was featured in wrestling media and wrestling's TV exposure most likely made him a household name. He didn't enjoy the same mainstream exposure as Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks or Kendo Nagasaki, but among wrestling viewers he would have been extremely well known. 19. Was he a top tag team wrestler? No, he wrestled in tag matches occasionally but was predominantly a singles wrestler. 20. Was he innovative? Not as much as Grey or Saint. He basically used the same schtick for more than a decade and worked a style of match that many heels followed. 21. Was he influential? Not really. He was off regular television for four years before wrestling went off the air and had no real influence on the indy wrestling that followed. He didn't have any influence on All-Star promotions and he didn't help to shape international junior heavyweight wrestling like Mark Rocco and Dynamite Kid did. He may have influenced some of the heels that followed him in the 70s but not in any obvious way. There may be wrestlers these days who quote him as an influence, but I haven't heard of any. 22. Did he make the people and workers around him better? Absolutely. He carried young workers like Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith and Danny Collins to important bouts early in their career and very rarely had bad matches with people. 23. Did he do what was best for the promotion? Did he show a commitment to wrestling? Yes, he did jobs on numerous occasions. His losses almost always meant something and benefitted his opponent. He showed enough commitment to wrestling that he wrestled for some thirty years, including a huge amount of travel which he didn't particularly enjoy. 24. Is there any reason to believe that he was better or worse than he appeared? We don't have any footage of him from the 60s and what we do have from the 70s and 80s is limited. With more footage, his standing as a worker would probably be enhanced. More research is required from wrestling magazines in the 60s and early 70s to get a better picture of how important Breaks was prior to appearing more frequently on television.

I don't think it's a matter of pimped matches but consistently good week to week TV matches.

That would probably make sense if it didn't follow directly after said low point.

99 WWF/E was a cesspool. You can literally take any year in the history of the company and compare it favorably to that year. You can literally take the Smackdown Six era and compare it favourably to just about any other era in the company.

Atlantis y Lizmark vs. El Egipcio y El Faraón (2/17/84) This next match features two guys who’ve been mentioned quite a bit already, El Faraon and Lizmark. El Faraon means “The Pharaoh” in Spanish, and as you can imagine he used to come to the ring adorned in Egyptian imagery, mostly notably the Anubis on the side of his mask, back in the era where lucha masks were truly beautiful. In 1975, he became embroiled in a “una grande rivalidad” with the rudo Fishman, where the only way to determine who was the best was a mask match. Both masks were coveted at the time, El Faraon’s beautiful emerald mask and Fishman’s distinctive green and yellow mask. El Faraon entered the mask match as the favourite, as he’d had a long string of undefeated matches and Fishman had just added the NWA World Welterweight Championship to his Mexican National Welterweight crown, which in lucha booking suggests the rudo is going to lose his mask while still being protected as a champion, but what the public didn’t realize was that El Faraon had movie star looks, and so on 4/23/76 Fishman unmasked the Pharaoh to the dismay of the fans. Fishman went on to become an even bigger star and El Faraon immediately got his heat back by taking Perro Aguayo’s hair, as well as defeating him for the NWA World Middleweight Championship in the Autumn of ‘76. Faraon would often team with fellow technico, Ringo Mendoza, in apuestas matches where they took a number of big scalps. The pair would also meet as rivals in the middleweight division. In 1980, Faraon was instrumental in cementing Satanico as a championship caliber wrestler after Satanico had defeated Sayama for the NWA World Middleweight title on 3/28 and successfully defended it against Ringo Mendoza on 4/9 in Acapulo. Some older lucha fans claim that while Satanico showed a lot of ambition in his early career he wasn’t a particularly good technical wrestler and was favoured by the EMLL office given his rise to stardom was quicker than others. Whether that’s just perception or there’s any truth to it I’m not sure, but Faraon, Mendoza, Americo Rocca, Halcon, Benetto, Dantes and Tony Salazar were considered better technical workers. On 4/11, they ran a trios between El Halcón Ortiz, Faraón y El Fantasma vs. Alfonso Dantés, Satánico y Sangre Chicana that set-up a challenge from Satanico for either his NWA World Middleweight title or Mexican National Heavyweight title, both of which Satanico held at the time. The end result was Faraon challenging Satanico for his NWA title on the 4/18 Arena Mexico show, which saw the return of El Santo to Arena Mexico and EMLL. The match was said to be a classic and Satanico earned plenty of admiration through his performance. At some point around 1981, Faraon turned on Ringo Mendoza and became a rudo. This tag match is from that period. Some time around late ’85-early ’86 he would turn technico again and feud extensively with Sangre Chicana and Perro Aguayo. He then enjoyed a veteran midcard spot with EMLL up until his retirement from injuries in 1992. He is best known to 90s viewers for his bloody hair match against Pirata Morgan from 1990. Lizmark was probably the most pure athlete in the promotion. Before getting into wrestling, he was a swimming champion, cliff diver, boxer and body builder. Fortunately, for us he also became one of the premier young flyers in lucha libre, as well as an excellent mat worker. He was particularly notable for bringing new moves to lucha libre that were state-of-the-art at the time like the flying dropkick and the powerbomb. For a long time he was criminally underrated in wrestling circles, possibly because he didn’t get over in Japan, but at this time he was arguably the best technico worker in EMLL or at least the best masked one. A good intro match for Lizmark is his title match against El Enfermero Jr., which didn’t make the set but which you should be able to find online easily enough. Around this time, Lizmark had just come off a run of being dual NWA World Middleweight and Mexican National Middleweight champion in a feud with Satanico, and would spend the next few years in title limbo before moving up to the light heavyweight ranks. Later on, he jumped to AAA where he produced some of his best work against rudos like Jerry Estrada and La Parka despite being in his mid 40s. Faraon’s partner in this match El Egipcio also had an Egyptian gimmick where he wore a type of Pharaoh’s headdress (if they’d found a third guy, they could have made a trios out of it.) His claim to fame was losing his mask to Rayo de Jalisco Jr. on the last Arena Mexico show of ’83 in a Relevos suicidas bout which also involved Hombre Bala and Masakre. The week before this tag Lizmark and Faraon had fought in a mano a mano bout, which may have been testing the waters for a future hair vs. mask match. That match never occurred, which makes this match more significant for the Atlantis and Lizmark pairing, which would go on to be a lasting combination that won both tag and trios titles.

He had a great build for a wrestler and was a machine. He was like a superior version of a young Scott Steiner. The kind of guy you'd hope someone with amateur cred would be. Dude doesn't have to be the greatest of all time to appreciate that he had a motor.

All I've got to say about this is that in '99 there were people hoping that a 3 minute Brood vs. Hardy Boys match would contain workrate.

Devil Masami, Yukari Omori and Jaguar Yokota vs. Bull Nakano, Leilani Kai and Velvet McIntyre, 6/25/85 Devil Masami had crossed over to the face side by this point and Bull Nakano had peroxide blond hair not blue. This looked like it was clipped to shit, but there were still some cool moments. There were a couple of times when Devil squared off with Bull that really made me want to see a singles match from this time period and Devil vs. Leilani would have been welcomed too. Leilani didn't get to do much here, but she bumped pretty well. Jackie Sato, Rimi Yokota and Mimi Hagiwara vs. Mami Kumano, Yumi Ikeshita and Leilani Kai, 1/4/81 This had the almighty shit clipped out of it, but what aired was chaotic and fun. Leilani got a bigger role this time around, getting on the house mic to start with and taunting the shit out of Sato. The usual mix of brawling and non stop running between the ropes. Yumi Ikeshita was so fucking cool. Man, I love that girl. The rudo side was fantastic in general. Yokota, as she usually did, looked great in her early years. Dump Matsumoto, Bull Nakano, Condor Saito and Leilani Kai vs. Chigusa Nagayo, Yumi Ogura, Kazue Nagahori and Yumiko Hotta, 8/23/86 This was from American TV and was a bit of a hatchet job, though I'm sure the original broadcast version was the same. The parts where Leilani fought Chigusa were awesome, especially the ending where she kept taunting Chigusa about having taken her belt. As you can imagine, it came down to three on one with Chigusa not having much of a fighting chance. Ogura and Nagahori showed their usual spunk.

Alan Dennison vs. Jim Breaks (8/23/83) This was the finals of a knockout tournament to present some sort of charity shield. Joint Promotions used to run tournaments like these several times a year and usually had the town mayor or some other dignitary present the trophy to the winner. I suppose it was done to book something different on TV every once in a while. Since it was a tournament final, the match was a special no-rounds 15 minute bout. Breaks and Dennison showed their usual working chemistry, but the most entertaining thing about this was the Swadlincote crowd. They were really hot and kept chanting "mardy" at Breaks, which Walton was told by his crew at ringside meant "yella" in the local dialect but wikipedia says it means soft or crybaby. Someone threw a dummy (pacifier) at Breaks as well, which the crowds used to do to rile Breaks up. The bout itself was pretty good, though the fall that breaks won was confusing as the bell rang without anybody really knowing what had happened. After that, the match went to a draw and the ref declared Dennison the winner since he'd received less public warnings. Breaks threw a tantrum and the Swadlincote crowd got their night's entertainment. Jim Breaks vs. Little Prince (11/8/80) This was fun while it lasted. It was nothing outstanding, but I didn't really expect it to be being the heats of yet another tournament. The Prince was sans moustache and looked much different. Some fun exchanges mostly in the final fall. Jackie Turpin vs. Jim Breaks (6/15/82) This was really good. According to Walton, the winner became the number one contender to take on Steve Grey for his British Lightweight title. Turpin came from a famous boxing family and had been a boxer himself from the late 60s through to mid-70s. His uncle Randolph Turpin was famous for defeating Sugar Ray Robinson for his World Middleweight title in 1951 (a victory that later had tragic consequences for his uncle who committed suicide some years later.) For a guy who wasn't a natural wrestler, he was pretty good. He had a bit of a strange physique for the sport, but he made up for whatever shortcomings he may have had with plenty of enthusiasm and this was a nice mix of Breaks' schtick and actual wrestling. Turpin had some nice high spots and the booking was really good. Breaks wound up jobbing for Turpin and when Breaks jobbed it always meant something. Now I really want to see Turpin's match with Steve Grey.

Don't forget about the Mendozas. Pirata Morgan has produced quite a brood as well. There's also the Masacaras/Dos Caras family.

Why would a production company do this?

A lot of them are watching TV after 11pm it would seem -- http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/2003-1...g-viewers_x.htm

Lelani Kai vs. Yukari Omori, 9/14/87 This should have been more than what it was. Leilani tended to follow the Japanese workers' lead since she was in Rome, and for whatever reason, booking or otherwise, Omori wasn't interested in making it anything special despite the fact that she had major matches with both Chigusa and Lioness around this time and was perfectly capable of working a big match. Maybe it would've been a bigger deal if it had been a title defence between the Chigusa matches. In any event, this was disappointing. Lucy Kayama, Victoria Fujimi & Rimi Yokota vs. Mami Kumano, Joyce Grable & Leilani Kai, 12/79 This was your typical late 70s trios match with the bad girls bullying the idols. I don't think too many people here would enjoy this sort of thing as the face comeback wasn't the kind of tight, well-executed thing that people sing about, but man was Mami Kumano the glue that held this kind of thing together. She may not have been technically great, but her presence and relentless bitchiness really make her stand out in this era. Kai was just a heavy at this point. Jaguar Yokota, Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami, Leilani Kai & Velvet McIntyre, 5/15/82 This was a 6 man tag main event from an early 80s episode of AJW TV. It was from some point after Jaguar became the WWWA World Heavyweight champion, back when Devil Masami was the lead heel in the company after they'd phased Monster Ripper out and before they pushed Dump Matsumoto. As with any tag match where Devil faces off against Mimi Hagiwara, there was a big heat segment where Devil beat on Mimi. Mimi wasn't the originator of screaming in Joshi, but she took it to new levels. If that's not your thing steer clear of Mimi, but she was very good in her role. Leilani was again hired muscle. I think Devil's trio were called Black Gundam Trio or something. Match ended with Devil going batshit with a kendo stick.

Jim Breaks vs. Alan Dennison (5/28/80) After Breaks finished feuding with Young David, he began a program with Alan Dennison that became his big feud of 1980. Dennison had been in Davey Boy's corner when they did the Dusty finish that saw the kid win the British Welterweight title. When Breaks complained about the finish, the title was held-up and a rematch was signed for the vacant belt. Breaks won the rematch and Dennison stepped in immediately as the first challenger, despite being on the upper limit of the Welterweight bracket, which meant that kayfabe-wise he had to train down to face Breaks. I never really cared for Dennison's wrestling or his strongman gimmick, but when I was going through the dregs of the World of Sport footage I softened on him a bit, and this is Breaks in a major feud, so I picked up all the footage there is of these two guys and man am I glad I did. Partly, I'm excited to see Jim Breaks again, but this Solihull match is a great piece of TV. It's joined in progress and really gets going when Dennison puts a hold on Breaks' pectoralis muscle and keeps telling him he's nothing. Apparently, these two were best mates in real life and the chemistry between them is off the charts. I had never seen such an intense performance from Dennison. Breaks threw him to the outside between rounds, which injured Dennison's arm and the ref and medics wanted to stop the bout, but Dennison pleaded with Brian Crabtree and the ref to allow the match to continue while Breaks was gloating in the background. The match continued with Dennison fighting with one arm and Breaks getting all cocky and slapping him in the face. Breaks got the Breaks Special on a couple of times, but Dennison was able to power his way out of it with his good arm, and just when it seemed like Dennison would succumb to his injury, he reversed the Breaks Special into a submission of his own for the upset victory. Cracking TV. Jim Breaks vs. Alan Dennison (8/6/80) Surprisingly, Dennison won the British Welterweight title in a non-television match yet the rematches aired. This was a non-title bout with Breaks searching for a win to force a title shot. Again, the intensity from Dennison was palpable. These two matched up extremely well. This was original broadcast footage, but joined from the beginning and complete. It was an excellent match with Dennison's strongman schtick looking fantastic against the weaselly Breaks. Apparently, Dennison used to have quite heated bouts with McManus and Pallo, which must have been something to watch. Match was building up to be one of the best of 1980 when they did a finish that was a neat idea in theory but disappointing for a one fall catchweight contest (Dennison was over the weight limit here.) Breaks injured his knee and Dennison went over to help stretch it out and Breaks took Dennison's outstretched hand and folded him up for a pin. Dennison was outraged at the poor sportsmanship, but I would have liked a better finish. Still, this was vintage Breaks. Jim Breaks vs. Alan Dennison (11/30/81) This was JIP and had sound issues and was a knockout tournament bout to begin with so it wasn't very long. Kind of outside of their feud anyway so it didn't really matter.

Fuck, imagine being at a party with Ric Flair and Jack Nicholson in the 80s. That's cardiac arrest stuff for the normal man.

In New Zealand, shows like Get Smart, The Munsters and The Addams Family would fill that 17:00-19:00 time slot along with stuff like Dr. Who and children's serials, while the morning time slot before the afternoon soaps might be filled with WKRP in Cincinnati, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show or what have you. These days, they're filled with stuff like Friends or The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but I think the real point is whether kids today watch as much TV as we did. When I was a kid, I watched TV pretty much from the time I got home until I went to bed and you watched whatever was on. If I stayed home from school, I watched all the daytime stuff. If I was a kid today, I'd probably be on the computer.

I will never understand the criticism of the Smackdown Six era. I quit watching before that era began and when I went back and watched it for the Smarkschoice poll it was like "fuck, here is the kind of wrestling I was desperate for in '99." That era was better ring-wise than anything from the Monday Night Wars era and was probably the best TV wrestling since 1992 WCW. I don't get looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Mocho Cota vs. Americo Rocca (1/27/84) Mocho Cota vs. Americo Rocca (2/3/84) According to Cota, he made his debut in 1968 for a local promoter in the Nogales region when he was a teenager. In 1971, he had an accident at the factory he was working for and from there the "Mocho Cota" gimmick was born. Of course, you'll have all read the story of how he hung out with the wrong crowd as a teenager, got into drug dealing and did a little jail time, and that his fingers being cut off was a message to whatever gang he was in, but the way Cota tells the story these days is that he worked as Mocho Cota for a long time locally until Blue Demon recommended him to Mexico City, who sent him to Diablo Velazco in Guadalajara to polish his act. Regardless of how he lost his fingers, he wasn't shy about flashing his stumps at the audience. He waved his hand more times than Arn Anderson gave the Four Horsemen signal. When he finally cracked Mexico City, he was immediately pushed into a top rudo spot by EMLL, squaring off against El Satanico on the 1980 Anniversary show in a hair vs. hair match. He then entered into two long running feuds with Talisman and Chamaco Velaguez that were both title match feuds and hair match feuds. Another frequent rival of Cota's was Gran Cochisse, who allegedly faced Cota in hair matches twice in the same year, though I very much suspect their second match took place in '84. This pair of back to back matches shows Cota defeating Americo Rocca for the NWA World Welterweight Championship and then successfully defending it. Cota would hold the belt through to July before losing it to his rival Velaguez, who he then took his revenge on just prior to the '84 Anniversary show by taking his hair. Cota's last major match for EMLL in the 80s was a hair match in March of '86 where he and Chicana took El Faraon and Talisman's hair and after that he disappeared until 1993, presumably because of another prison stint. The reason that these matches are so special is that prior to their discovery when people thought of Cota they thought of the worker from the 90s, who was decrepit to put it nicely. These matches show him as the worker he appeared to be from 1980-86, who famed television commentator Pedro "El Mago" Septien described as the "little giant of lucha libre." These days he's semi-retired, but still works the odd show in Nogales and around the Northern region, often tagging with his brother or sons. I believe he works at a centre for vaccinations against rabies while being involved in training local talent. Americo Rocca is a guy like Ringo Mendoza who the company just seemed to trust. Like Mendoza, he enjoyed some lengthy title reigns during his prime. He started off with the Mexican National Lightweight title, which he took from Flama Azul in '77 and worked his way up through the welterweight ranks to the National Welterweight title and the NWA World Welterweight title. Within that weight class, there was strong competition and he would be chased by wrestlers such as Cota and Talisman and later on the likes of El Dandy, Javier Cruz and Fuerza Guerrera. He had held the NWA World Welterweight title for 558 titles prior to Cota's challenge, and although Mocho takes the belt here, the company would give him a third reign in '86 that lasted for a further 606 days. He would continue to challenge right up until 1990 then adopted the old masked gimmick of Antonio Pena's father, Ponzona, and did some goofy stuff with the likes of Espectro de Ultratumba and Espectro Jr. Eventually, he began wrestling as himself again and worked for CMLL up until around 2001. Like Cota, he still works occasionally in the indies and has sons in the business.

This was perfectly good Terry Rudge. Fuck knows what I was thinking the first time round. Rudge gave War Cloud a working over, the ref stuck his nose in one too many times and a spit between the two led to a red card for Terry. Like all German bouts it needed a better finish, but it was worthy Rudge and watchable Rudge.

Bud Jenkins & Jean Sobek vs. Gino Rossini & Eddy Warrant (Herne 6/11/1988) This was the most lucha looking match I have ever seen from a European promotion. In fact, if you squinted hard enough the heels even looked like Infernales. Really cool stuff with some beautifully coordinated sequences. Would have made a great addition to a feature Euro set, but true to form it cut out before the end. Hansi Rooks vs. Dave Viking (Recklinghausen 1987) Hansi Rooks vs. Frank Merckx (Recklinghausen 1987) Undercard stuff. Basic journeyman brawling. Nothing to write home about. Franz van Buyten vs. Suni War Cloud (Hamburg 8/10/87) I was ready to write this one off since I found Suni War Cloud boring the last time I watched him, but leave it to van Buyten to hook me in. This looked pretty awesome, but it was clipped to the first and final rounds and judging by how many hugs they gave each other at the end it must have been a time limit draw. Forced me to take a re-look at this: Terry Rudge vs. Suni War Cloud (Hamburg 9/20/87) This was perfectly good Terry Rudge. Fuck knows what I was thinking the first time round. Rudge gave War Cloud a working over and the ref stuck his nose in one too many times and a spit between the two led to a red card for Terry. Like all German bouts, it needed a better finish, but it was worthy Rudge and watchable Rudge. Indio Guajaro vs. Wolfgang Saturski (Bamberg 4/3/83) I've been trying to find a good Indio Guajaro Germany match on par with his match against Pete Roberts from WoS, but we'll never know if this is the one as whoever edited it had a field day using every dissolve effect known to man and most of them in rapid succession. Billy Samson vs. Butcher Mason (Hamberg 10/8/87) This was a lot of fun. For some reason, there's 40 mins of this available and so little of the stuff you really want to see, but this was good heavyweight stuff. Mason ended up selling the fuck out of his leg and despite Rudge urging him on in his corner, Samson took him to the pay window. That pretty much ends my German vacation. I came away with a far greater appreciation for German wrestling than I'd ever had before, but it's still frustratingly incomplete. When the matches aren't clipped to shit, they either go too long or are marred by a shitty finish. Nevertheless, from '86 onwards it's clearly better wrestling than anything in the UK.

I'd laugh only I don't think I could get that high on a dropkick. Rude vs. Watts was cool, but Watts vs. Arn was disappointing.

Atlantis vs. El Satanico (1984) Atlantis continued to be pushed as a hot young superstar in ‘84. He was billed almost immediately as “El Ídolo de los niños” (The Idol of the Kids) and was extremely protected, always wrestling in the top two matches on the card and rarely jobbing. A modern equivalent would be someone like Mistico, though he became far more of a sensation than Atlantis. According to Steve Sims, in his recent bio for Atlantis’ induction into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, the company also worked hard at legitimizing Atlantis in the eyes of the “lower class” fans by having him work the type of brawling style matches that lead to revenge bouts and stipulation matches, which is what we see here in this mano a mano with Satanico. There were two key milestones for Atlantis in 1984. He had his first luchas de apuestas match at the 9/21 Anniversary show, wagering masks with midcard vet Talisman. Taking Talisman’s mask was an instant boost to his credibility and he followed it up by winning his first title, the Mexican National Middleweight Championship, which he captured from Jerry Estrada on 11/30. Satanico, by comparison, was right in the middle of his prime, a period which ran from roughly 1979 to 1991 or so. He enjoyed tremendous success during this time, winning numerous titles and wager matches and always featuring near the top of the card. When he wasn’t involved in singles feuds, he was generally given something interesting to do with the Infernales, and was basically a mainstay of the promotion until the 1992 Anniversary show, where a third hair match in three years against El Dandy failed to draw. His gimmick was that he was “El Número Uno,” the number one rudo in Mexico and by extension the best wrestler. As we’ve mentioned with the Chicana feud, this meant that he often feuded with both rudos and technicos alike. In truth, he wasn’t the biggest drawing rudo in Mexico, but he had by far the most technical ability, which allowed him to feature heavily in the nation’s title picture and demonstrate a level of skill usually only shown by technicos. In 1984, he was involved in title match feuds with Lizmark and Gran Cochisse for the NWA World Middleweight Championship, which are documented on the set, and won the UWA World Middleweight Championship from Super Astro, which we’re also fortunate to have on the set.

Atlantis y El Hijo del Santo vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Lobo Rubio (11/25/83) This was El Hijo del Santo’s debut at Arena Mexico, which he had to have been nervous about since it was the site of so many of his father’s most famous matches. Santo had made his debut as “El Hijo del Santo” on 10/18/82 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipa, where he partnered with Ringo Mendoza in a match against Coloso Colosetti and Sangre Chicana. His debut generated plenty of interest, but also a fair amount of skepticism as few believed that he would live up to his father’s name. While he never became as famous as the original Santo, by the end of his rookie year he had already silenced the skeptics with his sheer athleticism and was winning “Rookie of the Year” honours in the lucha magazines. On 7/22/83, he made his debut at El Toreo in a trios with Black Man and Matematico against Black Terry, Lobo Rubio and Blue Panther. For most of the decade, he would work predominantly for the UWA as well as the Tijuana promotion WWA while occasionally making appearances at Arena Mexico. He wouldn’t feature heavily on national TV until he jumped from UWA to AAA in 1992 along with many of the other UWA talent. The reason for El Hijo del Santo working for the UWA and not EMLL, aside from the UWA being the more successful promotion at the time, is presumably because his father had jumped from EMLL to UWA in 1977. Santo belonged to the lightweight class in UWA and competed against the likes of Black Terry, Negro Casas, Fuerza Guerrera and Espanto Jr early in his career. Atlantis had made his debut on 6/12/83 (as Atlantis, at any rate) and I believe his Arena Mexico debut at EMLL’s 50th Anniversary show was built up as the debut of a new young superstar and heavily pushed in the magazines. While we’re on the topic of Arena Mexico debuts, Fuerza Guerrera had made his debut on a major EMLL card at the 1981 48th Anniversary show, where he wrestled a match against Negro Casas that is somewhat legendary in that those who were there live claimed it was revolutionary for its time. Fuerza (the guy with the mask) is by far the better known of Santo’s opponents here and would go on to play a prominent role during the TV boom. He had just claimed the vacant Mexican National Lightweight title on 11/6, a relatively minor title which he would vacate in May when left the weight division and moved up to welterweight. Lobo Rubio (the Mad Max looking guy) was a veteran welterweight who’d been wrestling since 1969. He’s best known for being a member of Los Temerarios, a trios that considered of himself, Black Terry and Jose Luis Feliciano and had memorable feuds with groups such as Los Cadetes del Espacio, but he was also a fairly regular Santo opponent in the early days of Santo’s career. In fact, his was the first hair that Santo took on 10/28/83. It’s generally thought he was a trusted hand who was in the ring with Santo a lot during his rookie year to guide him through these difficult matches.

Here's a bit more on the Satanico/Chicana hair match that Raging Noodles translated for us off of DJ Spectro's blog. Note that Chicana went under the name of Andres Richardson rather than his real name and is often referred to as Richardson on lucha sites. "The semi-final would make clear who was the best rudo, a rivalry dating back years between Sangre Chicana and Satanico culminated. Even though two weeks ago, they had shaved [i guess they won a luchas de apuestas against] Los Hermanos Mendoza, their hatred to prove who was the best took them to this lucha de apuesta. The match started before the sound of the whistle, with a furious Richardson going after his rival, ripping his jacket (off) and sending him crashing into "the butaquerio" [i think these are the boards that they have on the apron, that advertises products, etc]. Satanico's face was immediately covered in blood, while (Chicana) expressed his anger with the fans, since their opinions were divided among who was the best. The match continued on "el enlonado" [i think this means mat or canvas]. El Infernal reacts by dodging an attack by El Paredon-native and the arena explodes. Chicana gets hit and gets out of the ring. His rival goes air-borne with a tope suicida but Chicana moves to the side to avoid it. Satanico hurts himself landing on the outside. Richardson now flies through the air and successfully connects. The rudo (Satanico), stays out of the fight, and the damn "pocho" advances. (In the U.S. Southwest, "pocho" like "Chicano" can mean an Americanized Mexican, while some have used both terms for lower-income Mexican-Americans or it can be political. Anyways, the meaning can be used differently, depending on the region and context but it's clearly referring to Chicana, which I thought was interesting). In the second fall, Daniel (Lopez) gives his rival a taste of his own medicine, by knocking him out of the fall with a tope suicida. Things are getting heated, the fans from ringside bursting with emotion. It's overshadowed by the sound of the whistle, signaling the start of the third fall. Now it's Andres (Richardson) who is bleeding dramatically, but he continues with this fight. It's close to 11:20 pm. [Had a difficult time translating one of the sentences on here so I passed it since it doesn't seem necessary to do a direct sentence-translation. Rough translation of the sentence I skipped was that it seemed like Satanico was on the verge of victory]. However, Chicana connects with a dropkick, which leads both wrestlers and the referee to go to the outside, through the ropes. Andres goes to the outside, to keep on punishing his enemy. But the arena and el rudo goes quiet when Palau responds by disqualifying (Richardson, awarding the match) in favor of El Satanico for the action outside. Nobody can change the result [Also, I think Richardson is taunting/mocking around this point, but I'm not too sure here]. Richardson is getting his head shaved. But the story doesn't end here. The losing "tuzadoel" [never heard this word before and couldn't find anything on Google except this blogpost] heads towards Satanico and smashes a Coca-Cola (glass) bottle that makes El Infernal go to sleep. Richardson heads off to the dressing room, while Daniel is taking away in a stretcher through the fans."

With some help from my buddy Raging Noodles, I was able to flesh out some of the details of the Satanico/Chicana hair matches. The first match was on 7/2/82, on the undercard to the Rayo de Jalisco, Jr./El Jalisco vs. MS-1/Carlos Plata match where MS-1 lost his mask. The finish to the match saw Chicana grab Satanico by the hair and launch him outside the ring. Chicana slammed Satanico hard into the wood panels that surround the ring. He repeated it twice, and the referee Palau told him that if did it again, he would DQ him. Chicana didn't care, he repeated the move, bringing the referree out, who tried to prevent it. This caused Palau to DQ Chicana, who lost his hair. While Chicana was being shaved, Satanico realised that he had won. He didn't even know how, but his rival was being shaved and he climbed the ropes to celebrate. Chicana took advantage of the situation, got out of the ring, and grabbed a beer bottle. He climbed back into the ring, smashing it on Satanico's head, leaving him knocked out. Afterwards, this type of action continued in their feud. Their second hair match was on 12/10/82, which I believe was the final Arena Mexico show of the year. The match ended in a draw and both men had their hair shaved. Here's a picture from that match: http://s790.photobucket.com/user/OPCELINON...c85bc4.jpg.html