ohtani's jacket

Pat O'Connor was born in Raetihi, a small town in the central North Island of New Zealand which I doubt any of you have heard of. Since I was born a ways up the road, I've taken it as my moral duty to chronicle the exploits of New Zealand's greatest pro-wrestler this side of Tony Garea, Rip Morgan and the Kiwi guy in the Sheepherders. Pat O'Connor vs. Dick Murdoch (12/15/75) O'Connor looked every bit the maestro here when he actually wrestled. Unfortunately, they spent forever in a headlock spot that was neither sold well from the top nor the bottom. Bloody awful thing it was. Every now and then you'd get glimpses of O'Connor's technical skill, but it wasn't until the stretch run that there was a fun combo of comedy and holds. And just when I was getting the taste of all that time killing shit out of my mouth it ended. Would rather had half the length, no headlocks and a finish, but O'Connor ruled in the maestro bits.

I can't agree about that Atlantis/Panther match. To me that's one of the greatest lucha matches of the 90s and the match I'd recommend to people if they want to see actual pure lucha libre. I don't think 1991 has been mined enough for hidden gems. The booking doesn't have the same high points as 1990, but there's been some great stuff pop up randomly on YouTube over the years. I know there's only so much room on these yearbooks, but if you want to see Satanico in '91, for example, he's there in a fair number of trios; he just doesn't always have a central feud, because they were cooling him off and pushing some other guys that year. As for Joshi, I think it's flawed, but the style is deliberate and intentional. The girls wrestled the way they wanted to wrestle. It was a crowd pleasing style that differentiated them from the men and showcased their athletic ability. The problem with the style to me isn't so much its excesses, but that it never evolved. I think when Childs talks about the over-the-top aspects it's a result of them trying to top what they'd already done, which unfortunately meant either going longer and doing even more moves. Anyway, you didn't really touch on the actual year that AJW had. It was very much a transitional year as they tried to path a way forward post-Crush Girls. I would have liked to have heard what Loss thinks of Bull Nakano's run over all. Perhaps he can touch on that when it comes to an end in '92. As for the Scorpion, she worked unmasked towards the end of '91 and then I guess she retired.

Steve Logan vs. Romany Riley (2/13/75) Steve Logan was a villainous motherfucker. Not in an extroverted way like McManus, but with his actions. I don't think the guy could be fucked wrestling. His matches were all body shots, all the time, and there was a shot of him squaring off with Riley here where you could tell that Logan was a hard man. Riley himself was a big guy. Lots of tats, huge mutton chops, and spent most of this match giving Logan as good as he got, but Logan just loved it. I mean Riley was pummeling him with illegal shit and after the bout Logan went over and shook his hand. Not every day you see a heel do that. No surprises that this was from Gravesend. I have no idea why it was such a hotbed, but Gravesend *always* got good wrestling.

Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro (Hair vs. Hair) (1988) This was a shitload of fun. I'm not sure that it was technically good, but if there's been one match on the set that screams "fuck yeah" then this is it. Arandu's hair was out of this world. It was like Mocho Cota's afro on steroids. The building was ready to come unhinged at the prospect of him losing it. Every time they went to the outside the heat was amazing. It was like there was this push to the front to get at the wrestlers. At one point some woman tried to start a fight with Arandu's manager and this was all sorts of commotion at ringside. Her preening Arandu's hair and strutting her big ass was gold. You don't see valets in lucha too often. During the TV boom they'd accompany the workers to ringside and pose with them before the bouts, but this chick was clearly Arandu's woman and together they were like a superior version of Fit Finlay and Princess Paula. Guerrero Negro didn't do much more in this than bleed, throw a couple of great looking punches, and a whole lot of shitting looking spin kicks, but Arandu's bumping and selling (and hair) made up for his lack of bite. After Arandu's valet was accosted, the match swung back and forth a bit before Arandu struck one between the goalposts. The reaction was like stirring up a hornet's nest. One false step and the crowd may have rioted. Instead the TV crew entered the ring and interviewed the seconds over the foul, treating it like Zidane getting sent off in the World Cup final. Fans begged for the result to be overturned while others threw rubbish in disgust. Arandu's afro perm could be seen bobbling between the officials in the ring, goading Negro over his loss, while Negro knelt in the ring receiving his hair cut like he was receiving the host. Once his hair had been cut and he'd made the customary lunge at Arandu, the biggest mass of humanity you'll ever see in a lucha match descended upon the ring and tested the thing to its absolute limits. It still amazes me that they allowed people into the rings after the matches in the 80s, but that was a different time and a different place. If this is what Monterrey was like in the 80s it was wild.

Arandu vs. Guerrero Negro (Hair vs. Hair) (1988) This was a shitload of fun. I'm not sure if it was technically any good, but if there's been one match on the set that screams "fuck yeah!" then this is it. Arandu's hair was out of this world. It was like Mocho Cota's afro on steroids. The building was ready to come unhinged at the prospect of him losing it. Every time they went to the outside the heat was amazing, as though there was this push to the front to get at the wrestlers. At one point a woman tried to start a fight with Arandu's manager, which caused all sorts of commotion at ringside. The manager preening Arandu's hair and strutting her big ass was gold. You don't see valets in lucha too often. During the TV boom they'd accompany the workers to ringside and pose with them before the bouts, but this chick was clearly Arandu's woman and together they were like a superior version of Fit Finlay and Princess Paula. Guerrero Negro didn't do much in this except bleed, though he did throw a couple of great looking punches. He also threw some shitty looking spin kicks, but Arandu's bumping and selling (and hair) made up for Negro's lack of bite. After the valet was accosted, the match swung back and forth before Arandu won the match with an outrageous cheap shot. This lashed the crowd into a fury; one false step and they would have rioted. Instead, the TV crew entered the ring and interviewed the seconds over the foul, treating it like Zidane's send off in the World Cup final. Fans begged for the result to be overturned while others threw their trash in disgust. Arandu's afro could be seen bobbling between the officials as he goaded Negro over his loss, while Negro just knelt there like he was receiving the host. Once his hair had been cut and he'd made the customary lunge at Arandu, the biggest mass of humanity you'll see at a lucha match descended upon the ring and tested the thing to its absolute limits. It still amazes me that they allowed people in the rings in 80s lucha, but that was a different time and a different place. If this is what Monterrey was like in the 80s, it was wild.

Congratulations on your 50th show. I listened to the second part during my commutes. A couple of points I wanted to raise: * I don't think Volk Han was the poster child for realism in shoot style. He didn't seem as influenced by Pancrase as Tamura, Sakuraba and Kohsaka were and had a whole bunch of schtick to go along with some pretty strong pro-wrestling sensibilities in terms of build and pay-off. * I wouldn't disagree with Black Terry or Negro Navarro in someone's top 50, but without getting into another peak vs. longevity slugfest that seems to be allowing Terry and Navarro some pretty generous late career peak mileage, especially Navarro who it pains me to say does not really start out prior to his reinvention in the 2000s. * We have an equal amount of footage from Breaks in the 70s and 80s, possibly a bit more from the 80s. After '84, he jumps to ASW and there's only sporadic footage of him after that, but there will be a fair amount of '80-84 footage on the set. I haven't gone through his feuds against Dennison or Collins yet as I don't like those guys, but he's basically a '73-83 guy in terms of the footage that's available. * As a New Zealander, I feel a moral obligation to watch more Pat O'Connor. That's my next project. * I loved Fujiwara and Satanico being married on Dylan's list. That was beautiful. * Maybe it's the contrarian in me, but I'm kind of over this whole Dandy thing. I want to see some critical appraisal of him similar to Dylan's comments on Misawa, who I feel was a better worker than Kawada but had some good points raised about. I don't really feel that lucha gets critically appraised enough in general, which I think is a real shame, though I understand that at the moment it's more about exposure than critically evaluating it. * Casas is a guy who I tend to be hard on because at his best he's a sublime genius and anything less is below what he's capable of, but recently I really dug his kickass post '97 hair loss run. It's like Owen's return after Montreal if Owen's return after Montreal had been handled right.

Uninteresting seems a bit harsh, but I haven't watched a ton of his pre-WWF stuff. His WWF run seemed better to me than guys like Windham, Martel, Scorpio, Duggan or even a guy like Tully.

I don't see how the Mr. Perfect run hurts Hennig so much. Surely he's not the worst case of a guy going to the majors and losing everything that was good about him. Is his WWF stuff really that bad?

The first ones were a bit rough, but now you're getting into your groove.

Dave Bond vs. Tony St. Clair (9/13/78) Soul Brother Dave Bond was wearing his Bobby Womack hat here. And your friend, Annie May, tell you all she see. Did you ever think she was trying to get close to me? This was a year removed from the Caribbean Sunshine Boys controversy and showed their chemistry together was no fluke. St. Clair had one of the most kick ass passages of babyface offence in this bout and this was ruling as much as their '77 stuff when they decided to do this cutesy finish where Bond tricked St. Clair into inadvertently DQ'ing himself, which the ring announcer managed to get overturned. That forced the match to continue and St. Clair quickly won with a flash pin. Pretty lame considering how good the match was. Mike Marino vs. Dave Bond (3/23/77) This was the beginning of the Dave Bond heel turn or at least that's the way Walton called it. Marino was an easy bleeder over his left eye and Bond went all out to try and get him to bleed. Marino took exception to that and knocked Bond the fuck out with some of the best looking punches I can remember seeing. After the match, Bond shoved Marino from behind and the look on Marino's face was priceless. He looked exactly like an old guy does when he's pissed at some young punk. He was just seething. It could have been a shoot it was that good. Really fun match.

I also mentioned that Cota looks like the Master, but only post hair match. I don't think you've seen his giant afro yet. That was his normal look between hair matches.

I had a dream last night that I found a really up tempo, workrate Brody tag on youtube and posted it in this thread. Of all the threads in all the land my dreams had to walk into this one.

We're not really talking about episodic content, though. We're talking about subtle details that may take years to pick up on, such as why this no-DQ match was a clever play on the stip. For me Portland takes a bit of getting used to. With the Piper/Martel tag, Piper playing the FIP in the first fall and then Martel in the second kind of threw me. Because of the break between falls, it almost felt as though there was a reset and I was watching two different matches. I liked the match a lot, but I dunno how much of a contextual thing this and how much it has to do with form and structure.

It's pro-wrestling. You should be able to take a date to the Portland Arena and have her understand the context of a non-disqualification match. They could have wrestled that same match under DQ rules and it wouldn't have made an iota of difference. I just watched the Piper/Martel vs. Rose/Wiskowski match that disintegrates into a brawl and I don't think folks need context to understand that. It's not for me to say whether there's subtle usages of the stip or not as I've barely watched any Portland, but in the context of no-DQ matches in other territories around the world that was not the type of match I'd expect. But it was still really good.

Brian Maxine vs. Clayton Thomson (5/11/77) I wish Walton had never pointed out Maxine's nose to me. It's kind of gross seeing a guy who has no cartilage. This was another odd Thomson comeback match. Walton was trying to put a hard sell on us that Thomson was as good as George Kidd, the oft talked about, never seen, light heavyweight champion of the world. Thomson was undoubtedly better in his young days (he's better in the earlier WoS footage we have of him), but not so flash in this comeback. What made the match odd was that Maxine attacked Thomson from behind before the start of round two and as they were scrapping Max Ward caught a back elbow in the face. Ward called for a DQ, got out his little book from his back pocket and gave Maxine a booking football style. The whole thing lasted about a round and a half, maybe a quarter, though Maxine got tremendous heat for it as usual. I love the spot he does where he backs the ring announcer into the corner and then climbs the turnbuckle to prevent him from announcing the result. Some guy leapt out of the crowd and tried to pull him off Mike Judd, the ring announcer. Then Maxine got on the mic and cut a promo while everyone booed him. So you see WoS isn't always like hushed tones at the cricket. Speaking of which... Tony St. Clair vs. Dave Bond (12/6/77) I absolutely love this feud. This was during the Caribbean Sunshine Boys run where both Bond and Kincaid took shots at British Heavyweight champion Tony St. Clair. The first Bond/St. Clair match is fantastic and this picks up where they left off. Bond is much slimmer here than he was in the 80s and was at the peak of his powers as a performer. He uses every trick in the book and a couple of new ones to antagonise St. Clair, who ends up with two public warnings and the risk of disqualification out of sheer frustration at Bond's inside moves. The babyfaces are always allowed a bit of retaliation from the refs in WoS, but St. Clair takes matters into his own hands here. If you've ever thought Tony St. Clair is boring you need to watch this feud as both his open handed and closed fisted strikes are awesome in this and he smacks the shit out of Bond at times. The heat is tremendous all the way through and this is just a great brawl. Even the over the rope countout finish is good and those are almost never good in WoS. This time St. Clair slingshots Bond over the top rope and Bond can't make the count of 10. It's a really aggressive move to get the COR victory. Afterwards, St. Clair lays the belt down on the mat and challenges Kincaid who's jawing with him at ringside. Tony was up for this feud and this is another of my recommended matches.

Promos about the round or something else?

Where do they go between rounds in Portland? It really bugs me how they return to the ring for the next fall. I thought the Rose/Martel DQ match was good, but not a great use of the stip. The things Rose did any heel worth their salt would do in a non-DQ match and Martel's fired up babyface schtick wasn't exactly crossing the line, but I agree that the match had a lot of good offence.

John Elijah vs. Roy St. Clair (6/1/77) This was exactly what I expected from these two: Elijah's power vs. St. Clair's speed. These are two of the more underrated/unknown WoS workers, though St. Clair was no great shakes in the charisma department. WoS tends to be like lucha in that the heavyweights are often overlooked in favour of the lighter weight classes, but WoS had the best heavyweights in the world in the 1970s. I'm no fan of the "best in the world" tag, but I can't think of another territory were the heavyweights were as technically gifted as they were in the UK. The finishing stretch of this match was tremendous with a series of fast paced nearfalls to rival anything that the light weights were capable of. Mike Marino vs. Roy St. Clair (2/13/75) This was one of the better Marino matches on tape, though the fact that they were both wearing black trunks and it was slow paced, technical contest made it a match that required a fair bit of concentration. There was reward in the detail, however. It does strike me as kind of odd that Marino was so heavily protected. Even Walton mentioned that no-one was capable of beating him. I wonder how many times he jobbed on television. Clive Myers vs. Clayton Thomson (3/23/77) Kind of an odd match. Thomson was making his return to television after a couple of years out of the game with a back injury. The whole match as built around Thomson's back not being right, which seemed like a strange way to re-introduce a guy. You don't have someone job in their comeback match to the injury that put them on the shelf and sure enough Myers suddenly missed a couple of moves and it was his back that was in trouble allowing Thomson to get his comeback victory. Oddly booked. Myers went from looking a sure bet to losing in the space of 30 seconds.

Americo Rocca vs. El Talisman (3/29/85) This was a nice little title match. Nothing fancy just solid lucha. It didn't have a huge arc in terms of dramatic structure, but the narrative was decent enough. Rocca and Talisman were frequent rivals in the welterweight class and ended up having a hair match a few years later. This date was Rocca's chance at reclaiming the title Talisman had taken from him months earlier, and more or less pit Talisman's strength against Rocca's skill. I liked that it built to a key dive in the third caida and the final submission was one of the best on the set. I'm so used to the workers submitting straight away that it was a real surprise to see someone hold on. You could sense the crowd willing Rocca on and they waited the perfect number of beats before Talisman gave in. Rocca continues to be one of the better babyfaces on the set, partially because of his wrestling ability, but also because of his babyface charisma. It's a difficult thing to describe, babyface charisma. With rudos you can write screeds about why they're so great, but what makes a babyface likeable? For some it may be their ability to play the underdog, for others it may be their take no bullshit attitude, but Rocca was neither. What struck me about him in the Cota matches was that he never let Cota get under his skin. Cota talked an amazing amount of trash in those matches and Rocca just smirked as though he enjoyed it. He was obviously a guy with a lot of confidence in his ability. He didn't have the greatest foil here as Talisman wasn't an overly skilled worker and not the most charismatic of the rudos, but my interest in Rocca as a babyface was enough to overcome all that. This probably would've been better if they'd worked more dives and nearfalls into the third fall, but it still did the trick.

Americo Rocca vs. El Talisman (3/29/85) This was a nice little title match. Nothing fancy just solid lucha. It didn't have a huge arc in terms of dramatic structure, but the narrative was decent enough. Rocca and Talisman were frequent rivals in the welterweight class and ended up having a hair match a few years later. This date was Rocca's chance at reclaiming the title Talisman had taken from him months earlier, and more or less pit Talisman's strength against Rocca's skill. I liked that it built to a key dive in the third caida and the final submission was one of the best on the set. I'm so used to the workers submitting straight away that it was a real surprise to see someone hold on. You could sense the crowd willing Rocca on and they waited the perfect number of beats before Talisman gave in. Rocca continues to be one of the better babyfaces on the set, partially because of his wrestling ability, but also because of his babyface charisma. It's a difficult thing to describe, babyface charisma. With rudos you can write screeds about why they're so great, but what makes a babyface likeable? For some it may be their ability to play the underdog, for others it may be their take no bullshit attitude, but Rocca was neither. What struck me about him in the Cota matches was that he never let Cota get under his skin. Cota talked an amazing amount of trash in those matches and Rocca just smirked as though he enjoyed it. He was obviously a guy with a lot of confidence in his ability. He didn't have the greatest foil here as Talisman wasn't an overly skilled worker and not the most charismatic of the rudos, but my interest in Rocca as a babyface was enough to overcome all that. This probably would've been better if they'd worked more dives and nearfalls into the third fall, but it still did the trick.

I liked the early Attitude era stuff. The WWF up until and including Summerslam '98 was reasonably well booked. It's not something I'd ever want to revisit, but skits like Mankind visiting Mr. McMahon in the hospital were entertaining. I hated the early Radicals stuff. It turned me right off the WWF. Benoit and Guerrero didn't get good until after I quit watching.

C&P from Luchawiki:

Enrique Vera vs. Dos Caras (2/26/84) I usually take for granted that Dos Caras is a gran maestro despite the fact that there's really not that much Dos Caras out there. Recently I was watching a tag match of his from his 1980 All Japan tour where he teamed with Jumbo Tsuruta against Dr. Wagner Sr. and Caribs Hurricane. Caribs Hurricane wasn't a luchador but rather Texas draw Ciclon Negro. The match was the usual watered down shit with the Japanese not really getting the lucha spots. To illustrate just how little they understood, the ring boys kindly taped together Wagner's mask after he did the lucha mask ripping spot. But what really stood out was that the matwork between Caras and Wagner wasn't that good. Which got me thinking, is there a mythology we've built up around Caras? I was anxious to see this again, and y'know what, I was pleased with it. The first thing that's obvious is that Caras was very much a heavyweight worker. He doesn't work the same as the other lighter weight workers on the set. His style is very much in the mold of 1970s NWA heavyweight wrestling, at least in this title bout, and there was little of the surreal expressionism that Caras is often associated with. It's almost as though there was exhibition Caras and serious heavyweight wrestler Caras. I'm a bit iffy on whether I like El Toreo as a venue as I think the outdoor ring set-up looks a bit cheap and there's not the same atmosphere that you get with Arena Mexico where kids flood the ring trying to pocket the coins that people throw. This got good heat and no doubt El Toreo was the site of some legendary bouts, but I wonder if the action might've been better in one of their indoor arenas. The third caida didn't work that well for me. The dives were predictable and always seem to the same dives on the same side at El Toreo, but the match itself quelled my doubts over Caras.

Enrique Vera vs. Dos Caras (2/26/84) I usually take for granted that Dos Caras is a gran maestro despite the fact that there's really not that much Dos Caras out there. Recently I was watching a tag match of his from his 1980 All Japan tour where he teamed with Jumbo Tsuruta against Dr. Wagner Sr. and Caribs Hurricane. Caribs Hurricane wasn't a luchador but rather Texas draw Ciclon Negro. The match was the usual watered down shit with the Japanese not really getting the lucha spots. To illustrate just how little they understood, the ring boys kindly taped together Wagner's mask after he did the lucha mask ripping spot. But what really stood out was that the matwork between Caras and Wagner wasn't that good. Which got me thinking, is there a mythology we've built up around Caras? I was anxious to see this again, and y'know what, I was pleased with it. The first thing that's obvious is that Caras was very much a heavyweight worker. He doesn't work the same as the other lighter weight workers on the set. His style is very much in the mold of 1970s NWA heavyweight wrestling, at least in this title bout, and there was little of the surreal expressionism that Caras is often associated with. It's almost as though there was exhibition Caras and serious heavyweight wrestler Caras. I'm a bit iffy on whether I like El Toreo as a venue as I think the outdoor ring set-up looks a bit cheap and there's not the same atmosphere that you get with Arena Mexico where kids flood the ring trying to pocket the coins that people throw. This got good heat and no doubt El Toreo was the site of some legendary bouts, but I wonder if the action might've been better in one of their indoor arenas. The third caida didn't work that well for me. The dives were predictable and always seem to the same dives on the same side at El Toreo, but the match itself quelled my doubts over Caras.