ohtani's jacket

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.

El Canek vs. Dos Caras, UWA 02/02/92 This was on one of the earliest lucha combo tapes I bought and I remember thinking it was pretty great. Not too many people had seen it at the time, but it's been floating around on YouTube for a while now and it was part of the yearbook project where it got positive feedback. I'm not in the habit of re-watching stuff and haven't seen his in a decade or more, so I'm coming at it from a different angle. Over the years, I've enjoyed piecing together this early 90s UWA TV bit by bit and I think it would make an interesting comp at some point. The UWA style was clearly different from what CMLL were doing at the time and what AAA would present and that includes the heavyweight style. On top of that, the UWA heavyweight style was different from what was happening on the promotion's under card. It's quite fascinating to watch what has become an antiquated style. Every time I watch Caras, I have to remind myself that he was a heavyweight and not a middle or welterweight like so many of the guys I enjoy. I also find I have to increasingly curb this notion I have that he's some kind of mat genius. I think that's a notion deeply ingrained in my generation because of the artistry of his match with El Samurai, which predated the lucha maestros era, and while he certainly could wrestle that way, it wasn't the way he worked heavyweight title matches from the footage which exists. This match was all Caras and all leg locks. The matwork was good, but not good in an "Oh my God, lucha is the best thing ever" kind of way. Probably the most outstanding thing about the match was that they worked a no-nonsense pace while adhering to the traditional structures, though I suspect that may have been because of how cold it was. Canek is a guy who I've thought in the past is mechanically good, but often dead weight. I don't think he added a ton to this, but he gave Caras a lot of the offence and put him over strongly and I was certainly pleased to see Caras win the match, so it wasn't a Canek performance you could really fault. I'm not so sure how great a match it was, however. There's nothing about it that's quintessentially "lucha," which for me is a big problem, and while I appreciate the difference in the more 70s stylised UWA heavyweight wrestling, I think if you were to study the mechanics of this as a wrestling match and not a particular style, the pace of the match didn't really make up for it not having the sort of dramatic, back and forth deciding fall you associate with lucha. It was good without really kicking into great territory, although Caras continued to salvage his reputation with me with another rock solid performance. 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.

Canek may be worse than both of them. Tinieblas Jr. is kind like watching a car crash. He's just so ungodly tall compared to his opponents.

Blue Demon Jr is the most boring wrestler of all time.

I'd just call it a cut-off spot. Maybe it can be a no hope spot.

Corrected. Ha, very good.

Axel Dieter vs. Karl Dauberger (Hannover 1981) This was a shorter match than a lot of the Hannover draws, so we got to see what Dieter could do when he upped his workrate. Fun match, but three rounds is too short. If Dieter could have maintained this sort of workrate over six rounds, his matches would have been really good. Franz van Buyten vs. Ivan Strogoff (May 1981) Strogoff looked a bit like Terry Rudge and wrestled like him too, which is a very good thing. I dug this a lot as I'm a mark for van Buyten. He did some cool strength holds where he had Strogoff in a submission and lifted him off the mat. Strogoff took control of the match with some solid brawling, but the match ended up being called off as Strogoff's second (possibly Lasartesse?) got involved and caused a big brawl. Giant Haystacks vs. Klaus Wallas (Hannover 1985) This was about as good as a Klaus Wallas vs. Giant Haystacks match could be. Don't tell me this means I need to search for good Haystacks matches. Oh God, I just did a YouTube search. Axel Dieter vs. Steve Wright (Hannover 1981) This was better than I remembered. I've kind of softened on Wright since I saw his early 70s World of Sport footage, but I still consider him something of a disappointment footage wise. Nevertheless, he looked like the best opponent Dieter faced in this tournament and we got to see much more of Dieter's technical ability than in previous fights. Unfortunately, it went to a draw as per most of these Hannover fights. It's a wonder anyone ever won the Cup with the number of draws there were. I wonder if draws forced a replay? Axel Dieter vs. Klaus Kauroff (Hannover 1981) This came across as a bit of a blockbuster since Dieter had won the Hannover tournament in 1980 and Kauroff would go on to win it in '81. Kauroff was a Maurice Vachon looking wrestler who was a pretty decent grappler. There was an intensity to this that was missing from a lot of Dieter's other matches and although it ended in a draw (again) it was a compelling and worthwhile match-up. Probably Dieter's best match of the tournament. Franz van Buyten & Bobby Gaetano vs. Le Grand Vladimir & Judd Harris (Recklinghausen 3/83) Fun tag match. Van Buyten and Gaetano made an awesome babyface pair. This was the best Gaetano has looked in the matches I've seen him in. He was balling in this match. I'm pretty confident in saying that Germany had better tags than England, though they haven't knocked one out of the park yet. This was quality houseshow-ish stuff, though.

I like my submissions to look like Picasso so my favourite are lucha and Euro holds. In terms of finishers, the Jim Breaks Special is a good one.

Everybody knows the peak of the company was Jimmy Golden.

What's the point in harping on about structure when his structure's not that bad?

I don't disagree with any of this, but I think the flipside to Tanahashi not doing anything interesting is that he doesn't really do anything poorly. He's wrestling a generic New Japan main event style for an audience that pops for that sort of thing. One thing I'll say for him is that I think the "shell of an epic main event" may work in his favour. Towards the end of the 90s Japanese wrestling became far too dense. Workers were trying far too hard to fill in their matches with interesting "stuff." They'd set the bar so high that the only way to outdo themselves was to go longer and add more spots. I expected Tanahashi to take this to another extreme like modern indy workers, so I was pleasantly surprised by his pared back style. Mileage may vary on how exciting he is, but it wouldn't be fair to accuse him of excess. As for his match layouts, the hardest thing to get right in any discipline are the basics. I think he has a good sense of match structure. It's really up to his opponent to fill in the details, because in the average Tanahashi build he's selling. And it's not like he's wrestling other all-time greats. When the best opponent you face is Minoru Suzuki that's not much of a receipe for greatness. Misawa wouldn't really be Misawa if he'd been feuding with Ogawa. I get bored easily during wrestling, but for me Tanahashi has good rhythm and doesn't labour with elements he's no good at. If your matwork's no good, don't do it. Tanahashi's matwork is just standard, but he doesn't bore me to death with it like Mutoh or Chono, who had too much confidence in their wrestling ability. I'm not going to penalise a guy for recognising his weaknesses. Strikes are Tanahashi's weakest area. He should just stick to chops and slaps to the face. Ultimately, I see him as a Bon Jovi song. Big chorus with a big outro. Gets stuck in your head from time to time and fun to sing at karaoke, but not something you're going to claim as your favourite music. The songwriting is solid, but musically uninteresting for the most part. There's a place for Tanahashi like there's a place for Ishikawa and Ikeda. Again, the trouble is his fans, who are arguing that Bon Jovi are The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or something.

It depends on how old the person is. Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplan, John Ford, Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock were all famous in their lifetimes. Actors like Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood obviously have added notoriety. More people would have heard of Woody Allen than have seen his films. Spike Lee would be known amongst sports fans. Oliver Stone was big for a while. People may know Kubrick too.

Hughes was his own genre in the 80s. That doesn't mean that everyone will remember his name just the folks with a particular connection to his films. Spy magazine claimed that Hughes was more Capra than Capra in the early 90s.

When I think of aces, I think of guys who drew the loudest cheers on Dome shows like Tsuruta in 1990 and Misawa in '95. New Japan doesn't seem big enough to have an ace, at least not in the true drawing sense. To me he's just the best worker in the company, or the guy positioned as the best worker in the company. Calling him an ace is a bit like calling Dynamite Kansai or Kaoru Ito an ace. It doesn't really work without a big enough stage.

I thought I'd say my final piece on Tanahashi. If you compare him with a wrestler like Misawa he comes off second best in every category. Misawa had a command over his offence that allowed him to establish himself as the man both early in a match and in crunch time. And his selling went places Tanahashi doesn't go, as Misawa would take you right to the brink of an all-time great champion losing. If all the world's a stage then Misawa's was a bit more epic than most. Tanahashi doesn't have the aura of a New Japan legend either. He doesn't have the same fire as a Choshu or Hashimoto. You could argue that those workers' charisma wouldn't play to the kind of houses New Japan draws, but then again if Tanahashi had the aura of a Hashimoto perhaps they'd be drawing bigger houses. In any event, I can see the argument that he doesn't live up to past champions. His lineage is more along the lines of a Fujinami or Mutoh than the guys who defined the ace role. But he is a decent worker. He can't work the mat, his strikes aren't very good and he's not a details guy, but he's good at moving a match forward. I think he realises he's nothing special on the mat, so instead of spending large chunks of the match in boring holds he tends to move briskly through the build to each match and get to the meat and potatoes of what he's good at, which is dropping bombs and working near falls. Some workers like to control a match and use the same patterns to the extent that a formula develops, but Tanahashi tends to give the build to his opponent so that if he's wrestling Okada it feels like he's working an Okada style match, and if he's working Suzuki it feels like he's working a Suzuki style match, and so on. That's very different to say an Akira Hokuto or Aja Kong. But I don't think this means he's getting carried in the matches that his critics like. It's just the way he works. Personally, I don't have a problem with his offence. He likes to work light, but apart from that I think his move set is fine. He doesn't have any one particular outstanding hold or maneuver, but he has enough suplex and dive variations to produce the kind of excitement he's shooting for. The only thing I really hate is the oft mentioned forearm exchange and his shitty posing. His lock up stance is a bit annoying at times as well. The problem is that he's massively overrated by Meltzer and others. Why this is I'm not sure. For whatever reason, the timing is right for a new workrate fave. The things that are said about Tanahashi and the Okada series are like Meltzer being drunk on a cocktail of Kurt Angle and Edge. Unfortunately, this sort of championing creates a backlash against a guy who is basically working hard and trying to have good matches. I told myself I wouldn't hold the hype against him when I started this mini-project because it's ridiculously unfair to expect him to be one of the best workers ever. I can't say I became a fan, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at seeing him again or watching him live. Of all Dave's favourites with annoying traits like Toyota etc, I thought Tanahadhi was genuinely one of the least offensive. No he doesn't have brilliant psychology but neither do favourites like Cena, Daniel Bryan or CM Punk if we were to examine them a little harder. I mean I watched the Cena/Bryan SummerSlam match while watching these Tanahashi bouts and there were some cool spots, but it wasn't as dramatic as Tanahashi's biggest matches this year. The arc to Tanahashi's big matches is generally strong and you feel like you've watched a contest. So, better than the pretty boy wannabe rock star he looks like but not an all-time great. I'd rather watch him than all but a few workers in the history of New Japan, but too much has been made of him as both a great worker and a poor one.