ohtani's jacket

Pirata Morgan, Babe Face y Cien Caras vs. La Fiera, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (1986) Babe Face, Cien Caras y Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Lizmark, Rayo De Jalisco y La Fiera (1986) These were a pair of excellent lead-in matches to the Babe Face vs. Fiera match. Not quite up there with Satanico/Dandy, Dandy/Casas or Santo/Felino in my own mini-pantheon of these type of matches, but quality nonetheless. Babe Face was a UWA guy working the talent exchange program at Arena Mexico, and as with other feuds from the 80s, good things came from talent sharing. The theme to this feud was how many times Babe Face could withstand Fiera's spinning high kick vs. whether Fiera could survive the blood loss, his bad shoulder and just being fucked up in general. What made the lead-in matches so good was that the others complemented them well. The second match in particular is one of the better trios on the set, largely because they achieve what I always bang on about in having a secondary thread to go along with the main issue in Fiera vs. Babe Face. In this case, it's Rayo getting the absolute shit beaten out of him by the Northern ranchers. There's these huge tuffs of hair sticking out of his mask and blood splattered all over his chest; at one point he staggers about ringside like the sole survivor of a car wreck. It's a tasty appetiser for the main course, but both times that Fiera is about to really get his hands on Babe, the devious ltitle squirt worms his way to victory, denying hard working folks the payoff to their working week. I found their hair match a tad underwhelming in isolation (you can read the review on this blog if you're so inclined), but with my appetite whet I was interested in reviewing what some are calling a top 10 match for the decade. La Fiera vs. Babe face (8/15/86) This was more fun than great. I don't think Fiera wanted to hurt Babe Face enough in the beginning. If they wanted to go the route of having Fiera dominate the opening fall and a half, he should have whipped Babe Face from pillar to post and made him bleed sooner. The match doesn't get good until Babe Face holds on to his winning submission for longer than he should and then stands there wiping the blood from out of his eyes. After that, it's the standard you expect from a hair match with some intense brawling from Babe and tremendous selling by Fiera, but that intensity should have been present from the start. Both guys were excellent in the final caida, however, with Babe trying to exploit Fiera's shoulder injury and Fiera trying to score that one big knockout move and almost knocking himself out several times in the process. If you chart where the match ends up from where it begins it's a fairly satisfying arc, so even if it's not a perfectly structured match it at least goes somewhere. Of course, controversy is never far behind when Babe's around and his low blow gets the crowd going. The finish s one of those ethical situations that you could argue about into the night. Personally, I'm not in favour of the technico cheating, but I can see the justice in it. The match was only half a classic and not one of the best matches of the decade in my opinion. There was a whole bunch of stuff I would have liked to have rearranged and ultimately Babe was too limited a worker to really deliver a classic. Fiera gave an excellent performance, but didn't lead from the front enough. It was a fun match though, and I've got to say that Mexico had some awfully competent barbers in the 80s. Nice job shearing those locks.

Pirata Morgan, Babe Face y Cien Caras vs. La Fiera, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (1986) Babe Face, Cien Caras y Mascara Ano 2000 vs. Lizmark, Rayo De Jalisco y La Fiera (1986) These were a pair of excellent lead-in matches to the Babe Face vs. Fiera match. Not quite up there with Satanico/Dandy, Dandy/Casas or Santo/Felino in my own mini-pantheon of these type of matches, but quality nonetheless. Babe Face was a UWA guy working the talent exchange program at Arena Mexico, and as with other feuds from the 80s, good things came from talent sharing. The theme to this feud was how many times Babe Face could withstand Fiera's spinning high kick vs. whether Fiera could survive the blood loss, his bad shoulder and just being fucked up in general. What made the lead-in matches so good was that the others complemented them well. The second match in particular is one of the better trios on the set, largely because they achieve what I always bang on about in having a secondary thread to go along with the main issue in Fiera vs. Babe Face. In this case, it's Rayo getting the absolute shit beaten out of him by the Northern ranchers. There's these huge tuffs of hair sticking out of his mask and blood splattered all over his chest; at one point he staggers about ringside like the sole survivor of a car wreck. It's a tasty appetiser for the main course, but both times that Fiera is about to really get his hands on Babe, the devious ltitle squirt worms his way to victory, denying hard working folks the payoff to their working week. I found their hair match a tad underwhelming in isolation (you can read the review on this blog if you're so inclined), but with my appetite whet I was interested in reviewing what some are calling a top 10 match for the decade. La Fiera vs. Babe face (8/15/86) This was more fun than great. I don't think Fiera wanted to hurt Babe Face enough in the beginning. If they wanted to go the route of having Fiera dominate the opening fall and a half, he should have whipped Babe Face from pillar to post and made him bleed sooner. The match doesn't get good until Babe Face holds on to his winning submission for longer than he should and then stands there wiping the blood from out of his eyes. After that, it's the standard you expect from a hair match with some intense brawling from Babe and tremendous selling by Fiera, but that intensity should have been present from the start. Both guys were excellent in the final caida, however, with Babe trying to exploit Fiera's shoulder injury and Fiera trying to score that one big knockout move and almost knocking himself out several times in the process. If you chart where the match ends up from where it begins it's a fairly satisfying arc, so even if it's not a perfectly structured match it at least goes somewhere. Of course, controversy is never far behind when Babe's around and his low blow gets the crowd going. The finish s one of those ethical situations that you could argue about into the night. Personally, I'm not in favour of the technico cheating, but I can see the justice in it. The match was only half a classic and not one of the best matches of the decade in my opinion. There was a whole bunch of stuff I would have liked to have rearranged and ultimately Babe was too limited a worker to really deliver a classic. Fiera gave an excellent performance, but didn't lead from the front enough. It was a fun match though, and I've got to say that Mexico had some awfully competent barbers in the 80s. Nice job shearing those locks.

I've only seen a handful of his matches. Not even to judge really. I'd like to put out some 70s sets.

All right, it's off to Germany and Austria we go. Otto Wanz vs. Indio Guajaro (Recklinghausen 3/83) This followed a pretty simple formula: some comedy to begin with, then Indio bent the rules and Wanz got pissed and beat the shit out of him. It's probably demeaning to Wanz, but if Big Daddy had matches like these he'd be a sure fire Hall of Famer. Achim Chall vs. Caswell Martin (Hannover 1980) I don't know the song Cas Martin came out to, but it sure was funky. Martin's stuff looked typically good, but I'm not sure he had the necessary drive to have great matches. Franz van Buyten vs. Colonel Brody (Hamburg 9/20/87) The last time we saw Brody he was working his 70s exotico gimmick. Somewhere along the way he traded it in for a South African military gimmick (as you do.) Ed Wiskoski would go on to pinch the gimmick and take it to another extreme, but Brody was still a nasty piece of work. He didn't do much in the way of holds, but they all looked like he was torturing a cadet during military training. van Buyten naturally was the right guy to sell that and so this was better than it had a right to be. Otto Wanz vs. Bull Power (Graz 6/30/90) This was tremendous. Arguably the best of the Vader/Wanz series, though admittedly it's the freshest in my mind. The anthems are played on a bugle while the crowd wave sparklers and sing along in full football voice. CWA sure took this pageantry seriously. The match starts off like any Bull Power/Wanz match with Vader beating the shit out of Wanz until the big comeback. In this case, Vader went for a splash in the corner and reeled backwards in agony. From there on out, he sold a knee injury about as well as you can without it being a legit injury. Wanz took full advantage, but his victory here had more to do with his staying power and ability to withstand the beating Vader unleashed. I don't now how many times the ring announcer told Vader to get out of the corner, but it was amusing.

That's a very good question. Judging him only on his European work, he was an excellent worker when he first debut as Dave Finlay. As he began morphing into "Fit Finlay" he was still capable of excellent performances, but after a while he became more interested in drawing heat and I'm not a fan of the Princess Paula years. Once they split up, I didn't really dig his wandering journeyman act either until he washed up in WCW. So overall, I'd call him a strong hand.

I remember he showed up on Smackdown in 2006 in a Diva Search segment, always found that random but great. Yeah, I randomly came across a Luke Perry Grantland thing where he talks to Simmons about wrestling and the first time he saw Kevin Sullivan.

Stock picks Stock going up -- Ken Joyce, Pete Roberts, Caswell Martin, Bert Royal, Roy St. Clair, Tom Tyrone, Ray Steele, Bob Kirkwood Ken Joyce is the British maestro. He's like Blue Panther, Black Terry and Negro Navarro rolled into one. Roberts had no personality but too many good matches to ignore. Martin had great technique but no standout match. Royal I originally pinned as the Dory Funk to his brother's Terry, but on further watch he was a solid watch. St. Clair was another with no personality but rock solid. Tyrone got big points for his rivalry with Roach, and Steele had too many good matches against the Roach/Rudge/Singh workrate crew to ignore. Kirkwood wasn't a flashy worker, but he could do just about every role that was asked of him from putting other a green kid like Carlo to playing straight man and even comedian. Better than average. Stock going down -- Chic Cullen, Clay Thomson, Ivan Penzekoff, Johnny Kwango Haven't found any more good Cullen matches despite combing for them. Thomson was disappointing in his comeback, and Penzekoff had issues with his gimmick and basically his role on the cards. Kwango mailed in a lot of his performances before hanging it up. New to the list -- Dave Bond, Black Jack Mulligan, Prince Kumali, Tony Costas, Billy Torontos Bond was an oversight the first time. Never a great worker, but I love his late 70s heel run especially his feud against Tony St. Clair. Black Jack Mulligan was a solid pro. Kumali was a thick set heavyweight with some hard hitting strikes. Costas was a fun worker who I wish we had more of, and Torontos' comedy is amusing in small doses.

Ranking the European workers v. 2 (Oct 2013) All-Time Greats Jim Breaks, Mick McManus, Alan Sarjeant, Jon Cortez, Marty Jones, Steve Grey Great Workers Terry Rudge, Tibor Szacaks, Mike Marino, Ken Joyce Excellent Workers Bobby Barnes, Robby Baron, Franz van Buyten, Clive Myers, Steve Veidor, Sid Cooper, Alan Kilby, Pat Roach, Pete Roberts, Caswell Martin Strong Hands Johnny Czeslaw, John Elijah, Tiger Dalibar Singh, Keith Haward, Tom Tyrone, Brian Maxine, Steve Logan (Snr), Les Kellett, Romany Riley, Alan Wood, Axl Dieter, Bobby Ryan, Dave Finlay Decent Hands Tony St. Clair, Jim Moser, Chic Cullen, Peter La Paque, Colin Joynson, Ray Robinson, Johnny Kincaid, Vic Faulkner, Tony Costas, Bert Royal, Roy St. Clair, John Kowalski, Johnny South, Ringo Rigby, Rocky Moran, Jeff Kaye, Johnny Kidd, Young David, Otto Wanz, John Quinn, Tony Walsh, Rene Lasartesse, Dynamite Kid, Steve Regal, Clay Thomson, Johnny Kwango, Black Jack Mulligan, Ray Steele, Bob Kirkwood, Prince Kumali, Dave Bond Average Kung Fu, Alan Dennison, Tony Charles, Mick McMichael, Count Baretlli, Lee Bronson, Tarzan Johnny Wilson, Honey Boy Zimba, Kendo Nagasaki, Skull Murphy, Johnny England, Mike Jordan, Tally Ho Kaye, Kid Chocolate, Lenny Hurst, Dave Taylor, Ivan Penzekoff, Billy Torontos Overrated Johnny Saint, Marc Rocco, Steve Wright, Zolton Boscik, Eddie Capelli, Wayne Bridges Annoying as Fuck John Naylor, Mal Sanders, Danny Collins, Chris Adams

For what it's worth, once you get to Talisman/Rocca you will see what I'd consider to be a basic, standard title match.

It depends whether you like matwork, dives and pure lucha libre wrestling. I think Satanico/Cochisse is a brilliant match with a compelling narrative, but it's not the norm for lucha libre title matches. It's one of the all-time great lucha libre title matches, which makes it an exceptional match not an atypical one. The same is true for the first Rocca/Cota match. No matter how awesome it is, it's not the norm for title match wrestling because Cota cheats. 99% of the time wrestlers will not cheat in lucha libre title matches, but Cota does because he's nuts. I don't think you can go into lucha title matches looking for character. You can't say "okay this guy's the rudo and this guy's the technico and this guy's doing this because of this character trait and this guy's doing this because of such and such a characteristic." Title matches are more about the work. The narrative is how they arrange the events in the match to achieve a dramatic effect, so that by the time they get to the third fall and they're trading nearfalls backwards and forwards the crowd are into it. The work, and a lot of times the rhythm in my opinion, are paramount to the greatness of the match. You don't learn anything new about Blue Panther by watching him have a great title match. You just get the pleasure of seeing Blue Panther work a great title match. Great character workers like Satanico. Cota and Black Terry may produce far more dramatic title matches because of their selling ability, but they're producing deviations on the form. You can't really approach a title match and say okay the rudo is trying to wrestle cleanly here because he really wants to win. He's wrestling cleanly because it's a sanctioned contest. There are literally rudos who can't work this style who aren't put in these matches because they don't have the sufficient technical skills.

I'm not sure I buy the Tully comparison. Satanico was probably legit the best worker in Mexico at the time and never got outclassed even when he was showing ass in Infernales matches. The Cochisse match isn't some perfect example of how to work a title match. It was part of a heated feud between the two, which is what gives it its edge.

Didn't know Luke Perry is a wrestling fan.

O'Connor vs. Mighty Inoue is another fun maestro match with a really cool finishing sequence where Inoue takes exception to an O'Connor punch and stiffs him a bit before doing an awesome senton. I could imagine everyone from Tenryu to Dick Togo appreciating that stretch.

Count Bartelli vs. Roger Wells (11/16/76) Count Bartelli vs. Klondyke Jake (10/8/75) Count Bartelli vs. Honey Boy Zimba (7/5/77) Boredom thy name is Bartelli. Walton would always tell the same anecdote about Bartelli that he trained by lifting a donkey. I think I'd rather see him lift a donkey then wrestle. All of the 70s greats were past their prime, but with the majority of them you can still tell that they were tremendous wrestlers. In Bartelli's case, it's hard to tell where the legend sprung from. To his credit he was extremely popular even in the years after his unmasking and seemed like a nice guy when he got on the house mic at the end of the Zimba match, but talk about all hammerlocks and no bumps. In the first two matches he was wresting fatties, but Zimba wasn't exactly a slouch. He needed carrying to produce something exciting, but all Bartelli ever brought to a match was the most basic of strength holds. The Klondyke Jake match was the best of the three since the fatty some spectacle, but this was dull stuff for the most part. Bartelli telling Walton to take a bow was fun. There was a close-up of an embarrassed Walton smoking a cigarette with a cigarette holder. Drinking and smoking while commentating is grand.

Thanks for the heads up. I've got a few more dregs to get through with Britain then I'm off to Germany for a change of pace.

O'Connor vs. Rikidozan looked like a cool bout. Tough day at the office for our boy, but like a good Kiwi lad he didn't take any shit from Rikidozan and his mob connections.

God, I love the Hammer. If you love the Hammer you owe it to yourself to watch this match -- Is there a comprehensive list of injuries the Hammer inflicted? Flair's nose, Piper's ear, Wahoo's leg, Santana's knee. Any more?

The flip side to that is that Japanese workers do too many moves.

I wish wrestlers still wore capes like in that Wilson match. Saw a clip of old man O'Connor challenging Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title and still looking pretty good, though Bockwinkel gave him too much of the finishing stretch before retaining his championship for mine. Also saw brief clips of O'Connor against Shohei Baba, which looked like a treasure trove if it were in full.

After watching and re-watching the Rose vs. Adonis, Piper and Martel feuds, I enjoyed watching Buddy work against a more limited opponent in the form of Stan Stasiak, though I liked Stasiak's puncher gimmick. The more of this stuff you watch, the more Frank Bonnema grows on you, but the way he'd prattle on about how it could take weaks for some men to recover from the heart punch and how some never did only for Rose to shake it off *every single time* made me want to head down to Sandy Barr's flea market and point it out to the man himself. Every time I watch a Rose match, I always come away thinking I saw more from his opponent than I did from Rose. I can't decide whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. I know he has some good looking offence, but he seems to work from beneath a lot. That's good in the sense that he puts his opponent over and everybody looks good facing Rose, but I sometimes wish he'd work from the top a bit more. Are there any bouts where he's in control a bit more?

Not a shoot, but Mark Rocco has some humdingers in this interview: I think there's a longer version too, but I only watched this extract.

Mark Rocco vs. Alan Dennison (10/11/78) All action, one fall, knock out tournament match. Rocco was hit and miss as a worker, but this sort of match suited his style to a tee. To Rocco's credit he knew that if he was going to be a success in the business he needed to stand out in some way and he achieved that by having an incomparable workrate. Dennison impressed me with his bumping and by hanging with Rocco in general. For a guy I thought I didn't like he sure has come up trumps lately. Mark Rocco vs. Steve McHoy (2/17/82) This really showed the genius of Rocco. It was supposed to be a world title match against Kung Fu, but for whatever reason Kung Fu chose to leave for Stampede instead and on this big Royal Albert Hall show they replaced him with a guy who'd never been on TV before in heavyweight Steve McHoy. Rocco really excelled at these catchweight contests, but this was asking a lot in terms of making up for the loss of a title match. Nevertheless, Rocco got on the house mic, cut a promo on Kung Fu and proceeded to have a heated, action packed bout in and out of the ring and really get the Albert Hall crowd going. Super stuff this.

Tally Ho Kaye vs. Danny Collins (3/20/85) Collins was one of Joint Promotions' boy wonders and this was another of those vets vs. young boy matches that were so common on television. The trouble is that the vets were already old in the 70s, so by the time the 80s rolled around these matches didn't have quite the same zing. Kaye was also pretty fat at this point. Wasn't a brutal match or anything, but not so interesting. Walton could be overheard at the start saying they couldn't use the ring announcer footage because he fucked up twice in the introductions. Ray Steele vs. Larry Coulton (Black Jack Mulligan) (11/29/71) How strange that we have Black Jack Mulligan's television debut. He was going under his real name here. It's also some of the earliest WoS footage we have and gives a portrait of Ray Steele as a young man (nice haircut.) Starts cleanly, but gets a bit heated and is fairly lively for a television debut. Mulligan showed glimpses of his future traits, but was given the benefit of the doubt as having to work that way to contend with Steele. The finish was Mulligan failing to make the count after three consecutive dropkicks, which may seem like a weak finish but I actually thought it was really cool. Why not score a knock out off stuff like that? Tally Ho Kaye vs. Danny Collins (aired 1/21/84) Collins had made his television debut the previous November where he took a fall off Jimmy Breaks. This was a special no rounds, 20 minute time limit contest and although it was a bit slow at times it was better than their match from '85. Kaye put the kid over even if it was on a DQ. He also got on some granny's wick awfully bad in this one. Alan Kilby vs. Black Jack Mulligan (2/3/82) Tom Tyrone/Alan Kilby vs. Black Jack Mulligan/Bill Bromley (2/3/82) More tournament stuff. Kilby worked really hard as usual and was way too excited when his tag team took out the second contest. It was like he hadn't been let on that it was a work. I've got respect for Mulligan. He was a better grappler than it appeared, but kept in character at all times playing a Northern brusier with a short temper who was easy to out smart. Someone in the crowd dropped the N word before the start of the bout, which was embarrassing. Alan Dennison vs. Black Jack Mulligan (8/3/83) Mulligan had shaved his head at this point and was as close to an asskicking Terry Rudge as he'd ever get. This was easily the best Dennison match I've seen and something I came close to recommending, but I'm not sure it would mean much to people unfamiliar with Dennison. Pretty much a straight contest with very little bullshit. Mulligan gave Dennison a tremendous run for his money and Dennison was a guy who was fairly well protected by Joint. The finish was another one where Mulligan gets knocked out easily, but he took his bump over the ropes like a man and I really like this. Billy Torontos vs. Kurt Heinz (aired 1/17/81) Short comedy match with some neat Torontos spots and a game Heinz. Walton sure loved him some Billy Torontos. The strange thing about this slapstick style of wrestling is that it was so business exposing that Walton had to continuously sell it as though Torontos was an accomplished worker who was doing all this comedy on purpose because he was a comedian. Kind of a warped kayfabe, but British wrestling had some many who played to the galleries that you accept it as a norm. Torontos died not long after this.

Yeah, I have a hard time buying that Steamboat is a better babyface in the Flair series then Santana is in the Valentine series even if the latter are better matches.

There's not a lot of attendance figures for British shows, at least not that I know of. We don't even have solid attendance figures for the big Royal Albert Hall shows. It's fairly obvious who the stars were, but it's unclear how they drew in relation to each other. John Lister or the Wrestling Heritage guys may have a better idea than me.