ohtani's jacket

Out of interest how much Ken Joyce have you seen? I've only ever seen the match with Tony Costas from 1/9/80 and really enjoyed that to the point that I recommended it on one of the old threads at DVDVR for consideration when the 80s European set gets done. He'd already retired twice by the time this match took place, but remember thinking he must've been something pretty special in his youth. I've a load of old WOS discs that were recorded off TWC here in the UK, but unfortunately that's the only match of his on them. I'm actually about to write about a Grey vs. Joyce match, but these are the Joyce matches on tape (air dates): Ken Joyce vs. Dick Conlon (Gravesend, 22/2/1975) Ken Joyce vs. Steve Grey (Crawley, 9/8/1975) Ken Joyce vs. Jeff Kaye (Reading, 24/2/1979) Ken Joyce vs. Steve Grey (Rotherham, 31/3/1979) Ken Joyce vs. Tony Costas (Leamington Spa, 19/1/1980) Ken Joyce vs. Steve Grey (Morecambe, 13/9/1980) Ken Joyce vs. Johnny Saint (Shrewsbury, 4/7/1981) Ken Joyce vs. Johnny Kidd (Lincoln, 13/2/1982) Five of those aired on TWC and three are from surviving footage. Fortunately, I've seen them all.

To me, Steve Grey is the everyman of British wrestling. A nice, regular looking guy who just happens to be a world class professional wrestler. He was good at football, taught carpentry to old-age pensioners and handicapped people in his spare time, and had the best resume of matches of any wrestler on television. We're extremely lucky with the volume of Steve Grey matches we have. In a lot of cases, we have extremely limited samples of a British wrestler's work, but with Grey we have a fairly sizable chunk of both his 70s and 80s work. For my money, Grey is one of the best babyfaces ever, a feat he achieves by managing to be extremely likeable and an outstanding worker. He was my gateway to European wrestling through the Myers match that Bix posted once upon a time (thanks Bix) and remains the guy most likely to deliver the goods when digging through the crates. A got a Grey comp made recently, mostly of the thousand Grey/Myers matches that exist. But there's some good stuff to come like Grey vs. the maestro Ken Joyce and Grey vs. Costas.

I've got a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to the Rockers, but that Powers of Pain match was really fucking good. It was pretty much picture perfect. You could maybe pick holes with the finish, but I'm not sure a ten minute match like that suits an operatic finish. The Rockers' bumping for the PoP was superb. Textbook stuff.

Pete Roberts vs. Clive Myers (2/9/83) This was all right. Two skilled guys who clearly enjoyed working with each other, but it was more of an exhibition than a contest. Well, that's the comp finished. Can't say it changed my opinion on Roberts too much. He was a skilled worker who had some great matches, but you've got to go digging for them.

That was awesome.

It is an oddity. Apparently, Evart and A & H Video Sales Representatives were the same company. They filed the trademark for Coliseum Video under the name A & H -- http://www.trademarkia.com/coliseum-video-73545435.html and were listed as such in the Ventura lawsuit -- http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-8th-circuit/1387808.html On this early Coliseum release you can see them claiming the rights to the package design and summary -- http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i9/TheRe...xplosivetnt.jpg Later, they're listed as the copyright holder on some releases -- http://www.wrestlenewz.com/wp-content/uplo...sualMatches.jpg

Forget Mooney, I want to see Vince staring lovingly into Parv's eyes and thank him for Jerry-mania.

Wayne Bridges vs. Pete Roberts (12/7/81) This was the non-title rematch. It was wrestled pretty cleanly until three or four minutes into the bout when Bridges suddenly started pointing the finger at Roberts and getting in Max Ward's face. This was so out of the blue that I wondered if he'd timed it for when TV would join. In typically understated fashion, Walton feigned surprise at the change in Wayne Bridges, but there was no damning him to hell. It still wasn't clear what set Bridges off or why he had such a problem with Pete Roberts. It may have been fleshed out in the programs people bought, which I believe played a big part in getting the wrestlers over at the halls, but it was pretty obvious that angles or storylines weren't Joint's forte and not something Walton was used to commenting on. Roberts scored the two-nil upset here, which led to an amusing exchange on the house mic where Bridges asked "who have you ever beaten, Roberts?" to which he sharply replied: "I've just beaten you, Bridges." Wayne Bridges vs. Pete Roberts (2/17/82) The title match at the Royal Albert Hall. Joined about halfway in. This was the most fired up I've ever seen Roberts. Bridges was in full rudo mode, which surprised me as I thought he might work cleanly in this one and perhaps raise Robert's hand at the end or something similarly sporting, but he was having none of that. The intensity here was good and it definitely felt like a big match. As with the lead-in, they were extremely understated about Bridges' carry on. The crowd booed him, however. After the match, they cut back to Dickie Davies in the studio, who said offhand "a mixed reaction there for the World Champ." Bridges jumped to All-Star Promotions shortly after this, so this was pretty much his curtain bow. Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts (3/14/85) Another bout that Roach kind of struggled through. Either he was getting too old for this or carrying an injury. Pete Roberts vs. Mark Rocco (4/21/80) These two had a really fantastic catchweight contest a month after this in the style of Pete Roberts. This was an up-tempo, all action bout in the style of Mark Rocco. No prizes for guessing which I prefer. This also had the ignominy of ending in a really stupid double DQ. Pete Roberts vs. Young David (4/7/82) Very little of his was shown and what did air made it seem like a squash. Very disappointing given what others had accomplished with a game Davey Boy.

I re-watched the Martin/Finlay match from '87. It was basically a vehicle for Finlay's heel act, which was over regardless of how I feel about the Princess Paula era, but since Martin was such a good worker the parts where they actually wrestled were excellent. The finish came a few beats too soon and should have had a few extra nearfalls. That would have made it an excellent little TV sprint. The timing is often off on British finishes, even the clean ones. It's the key area that people are going to struggle with when a set gets released.

I'll tell you what I don't recommend and that's the Orton/Adonis match from SCW. One of the most boring matches I've seen in months.

Coliseum Video was run by A & H Video Sales Representatives, Inc. The Evart Enterprises thing sounds like a bit of an urban myth, though someone said they did the box artwork.

To be honest, I always got the impression watching late 80s WWF that the faces were one big fraternity and the heels another, except that Hogan didn't dress with the boys, Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart's factions probably didn't trust one another and Bad News Brown didn't have any friends. I always assumed as a kid that the heels dressed in one locker room and the faces another like the home and away teams. That would have been kind of awkward when you turned. Imagine Jake showing up for the first day in the babyface locker after all those folks he'd laid Damien on. Somehow I imagine Duggan as the peacemaker.

Herb Abrams' UWF? SWS?

From a critical standpoint, a lot of critics blame Jaws and Star Wars for killing off the more artistic, auteur-driven New Hollywood cinema, so if people view the territories as being more artistic per se then I think Star Wars or Jaws is a fairly apt analogy for the WWF. I like the image of the WWF being Jaws. The auteurs were also largely to blame for the demise of New Hollywood, much like the territories themselves, and Hollywood was taking advantage of a changing commercial landscape much like Vince did. I think the analogy works fairly well.

The search function on my blog is buggy. I was a lot more positive about the Satanico/Atlantis match than I remember, though this entry wasn't really a critical appraisal:

Wow, dropping five on that one, huh? That's one I'll be interesting in re-watching since it felt like a bit of a poor man's Atlantis/Faraon the time I watched it.

UWA ran a lot of shows and brought in a lot of outside talent. They used to run El Toreo twice a week in their heyday so they needed a stacked roster and plenty of guys they could feed to Canek and other top stars, so in a sense they were loaded like AAA during its early boom, but they created some pretty big stars and they were excellent at packaging trios together and pushing the lighter weight talents and young guys. During the early 80s when the trios boom was in full swing and the Misioneros were pushed to the main event I can see it becoming difficult to decipher who drew, but that's an argument for putting trios in the Hall I suppose. One thing I'll say about Hamada is that if he was main eventing or semi-maining against guys like Aguayo, Fishman or Villano III, there may be a question of who was the real draw, the native star or the match-up. Then again, Hamada was a regular. The reason the shoot style promotions never lasted was usually because of the egos involved and squabbling over money. If they'd been run by a savvy promoter and not wrestler-promoters they may have had a longer lasting presence in the Japanese scene. I suppose MMA killed shoot style and now MMA is all but dead in Japan, and your fans who go to wrestling shows these days are a mix of hardcores and the casuals they bring along and are pro-style fans who want to see pro-style only, but there's still a bit of influence in New Japan isn't there? Don't they ape shoot style a bit? I don't really follow the Japanese scene closely. How long has Dragon Gate been in business and will they last or morph into something else? The influence thing is something I'd like to see fleshed out a bit more, because I don't think he had a big rep as a worker in Japan. Certainly not compared to the rep he had in Mexico. And he didn't really come back from Mexico and become a star like some of the other guys. He was behind the scenes promoting and training. Someone like Ultimo Dragon was much more visible as a lucharesu guy, I think. And promoting and bringing Mexican stars to Japan in the early 90s didn't really work even if it sparked the idea of M-Pro, but I'm not really sure that you can say stylistically that Hamada was the biggest influence on M-Pro since Sasuke had also toured Mexico and worked UWA. I definitely think he had an influence, but more as a figure who worked Mexico and knew it well than the style he actually wrestled. Is there any Atlantis outside of the more recent stuff that has disappointed you? Like any of his 90s stuff? I think the knock on Atlantis is that he was never directly responsible for any of the really hot CMLL runs despite being near the top of the card, though I think he had some decent drawing successes after the split like the feud with Mano Negra. Nothing earth shattering, though. Navarro is the most impressive because he completely remodeled himself as a great mat worker. I think he's been now than he ever was before. But he seems to have slowed down a bit this year. I like modern Panther when he works Monterrey and I'm sure I'd like him more if there was footage of him in the indies, I just don't think we see the best of him in CMLL, though credit to him for hanging in there this long and still being used by them.

They've been using super slo-mo in cricket for almost a decade now. It works well because of the speed of the ball. I wonder how it would go in ice hockey. I often have trouble following the puck in ice hockey games.

I just quickly listened to the Regal part as I was kind of the one who found Regal/Larry on Dailymotion during the Smarkschoice poll and I loved the Bret/Owen cage match and used to be a staunch defender of it in these circles, but I was expecting Loss to say something juicier. I like Regal's television title reign in practice, but I don't know that it produced that many great matches. The Larry Z match is the high water mark. I need to re-watch that Arn match at some point as I remember liking it but not as much as Phil and Will. I agree that Windham was awesome in '93. He was awesome from '91-93 or at least up until his injury. Davey Boy Smith also had a strong series of matches against Vader around that time so I don't think that was an exceptional carry by Regal and it was only really quasi-British matwork with a Japanese influence. The best thing about Regal was that he was completely different from any other worker in the company or in the States, really, and I do think he deserves a lot of credit for getting a pretty foreign sort of style to work in a mostly TV studio setting, which I don't think he could have done without developing that aristocratic character. It was the perfect marriage between ring work and gimmick.

The Longest Yard was Burt Reynolds best film.

With Hamada, I think you'd need to look at the houses he drew at El Toreo and other UWA venues. Jose mentioned the other day that he was a possible draw at Palacio de los Deportes. It's certainly the strongest part of his in-ring resume. In terms of a stylistic influence, I wasn't quite sure why you deemed "lucharesu" as being more significant to shoot style, but I don't think you gave Sayama enough credit for really being the figurehead of that style. Hamada may have been the godfather of the style in terms of promoting it in Japan, but Sayama was the spiritual father. Hamada also had a hand in training the JWP girls along with Onita, though to what extent he's responsible for the development of those girls is unknown. For Mexico, I would have liked to hear Dylan talk a bit more about Atlantis as a worker. I also think people need to decide whether Atlantis was a strong enough draw to be in the HOF. Blue Panther being one of the top 20 workers of all time was a big call. I might go that way if we had more of his UWA footage, but I'm not sure if on the weight of footage that we have that he's that good. Unless you're talking about technique. I don't think he's anywhere near as good as he used to be and Black Terry is the king of maestros, IMO, not for his technique as such but for his overall performing ability (acting and selling and so forth.) I really need to pick up that Caras/Panther match, though.

They had some great sit down interviews with Vince: Then they did a cheesy Christmas promo after getting back together. This was a fun one:

He turned heel at Royal Rumble '94 when he kicked Bret's leg out of his leg.

It's been a long time since I've watched it, but isn't there some niggle and some brawling on the outside? It's a heel vs. face match after all.

Bret/Owen was clean?