ohtani's jacket

Wayne Bridges vs. Pete Roberts (10/28/81) Joint Promotions liked to run these programs between guys where the champion would lose the first match 2-1, the winner would ask for a title shot but have to go through a non-title bout first, they'd win that, often 2-0, then finally get a title shot. They'd run this on TV and at the halls simultaneously. Just about every program followed this pattern; what made this special was a Bridges heel turn or at least a quasi-heel turn. Blue-eyes would sometimes work heel or tweener in the halls and occasionally break the rules or get agitated on TV, but this was about as close to a full blown turn as British wrestling got. It wasn't really clear what Bridges' problem with Roberts was, only that he got pissed during the bout and refused to shake Roberts' hand after a fall. As the bout wore on, Bridges began wrestling illegally and smirking about it. The finish was Bridges hitting Roberts with a running knee while he was still on the mat. Bridges assumed he'd won the match but he was DQ'ed, threw a fit and cut an asshole heel champ promo. Considering Bridges was cut from the same cloth as Roberts this was a lot more interesting than straight up Roberts/Bridges. Pete Roberts vs. Indio Guajaro (11/13/85) Hey, it's Indio Guajaro. I always get a kick out of the Germany-based guys popping up on British TV. Guajaro played up the witch doctor gimmick here and played the dumb savage to start with. Walton kept mentioning that he couldn't speak a word of English and couldn't understand the public warnings he was receiving. He also accused Guajaro of using the all-in American style, which comes across as a knock on US wrestling at times. The bout started out with these cliches, but it turned into something pretty great when the women in the crowd got massively fired up at Guajaro, Roberts began retaliating in the most awesome fashion (including a killer drop kick that knocked Guajaro out of the ring) and Guajaro kept grabbing the ring announcer's mic and cutting promos in Spanish. Fantastic heat for this, an injury finish that worked for a change and really amusing schtick from Guajaro that drew some good one liners from Kent. I think they brought in Guajaro a couple of times, but he would have been great in longer stints.

Soup, to answer your question about Centurion Negro, we have some early 90s Monterrey stuff and then there's a big gap before he shows up again in indy footage from the 2000s. In that Black Terry Monterrey trios he has the most awesome heated exchanges with Jose Luis Feliciano.

Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts (4/23/85) Despite being a heavyweight this was another bout where Roberts gave away two or three stones to his opponent. Roberts excelled at working against bigger men and was fantastic here both underneath and on top. Roach was nearing 50 however and starting to get a bit long in the tooth so his contribution didn't quite match Roberts'. This was particularly evident with the finish, which I thought was lazy considering it was only a one fall bout and Roberts had wrestled superbly up to that point. The match deserved a finish with a bit more care put into it like the Caswell Martin ref stop, not Roach swatting Roberts because he woke up and remembered he was 18 stone and 6'5".

I'm not getting what was so bad about that Joshi match. There have been far worse outfits than that in Joshi puroresu.

Sticking to the original theme, I always get weirded out when guys who ordinarily wear tights show up in a pair of trunks.

I think it's fair to say that Pete Roberts doesn't have the greatest reputation among the British workers. Even I'm a bit apprehensive when I see his name crop up in tape lists and I've seen more good Pete Roberts than most. But he's been delivering for me lately so I bit the bullet and got a comp made. Pete Roberts vs. Tom Tyrone (1/8/87) This was the final for the 1986 Grand Prix Belt, a real piece of shit looking belt. Joint Promotions had by far the worst looking belts in the history of professional wrestling. They were really into their tournaments at this point, which I guess was a plea/ploy to get people to tune in each week. Regardless of all that, this was my kind of wrestling. Tom Tyrone was a lot bigger than I thought he was. He was looking a bit battle weary here and had put on some pounds, but even with the extra weight there was a pretty significant size difference. The crowd was behind Tyrone and boo'ed Roberts and Tyrone was able to throw his weight around a bit, but for the most part this was a clinic from Roberts on beating a bigger man. He may have been the most charisma-less man in the world, but he could flat out wrestle. The match started to get really good when they began with the forearm smashes then cooled off a bit, but Roberts was savvy the way way through. I can see others not liking this as much. I don't want to say it was cerebral or anything like that, but if you don't like holds or the odd strike then Robert's personality is hardly going to hold you, but if you plain like wrestling then this was about as good as it got in a dying territory.

Caswell Martin vs. Pat Roach (5/11/82) Man, these guys were good together. Again we only got to see half the bout and I wish we'd gotten more because it really seemed like they were doing original stuff here instead of the spots they did with everyone. The finish was a great example, as they took your run-of-the-mill Dale Martin injury finish and did something special with it. Caswell Martin had probably the best headbutt in the business and Roach sold his strikes beautifully. Once he shook off the butts, he retaliated by body checking Martin repeatedly. Two or three times, Martin was knocked over the ropes which nine times out of ten is a technical knockout/automatic countout in WOS. Martin, however, got back in the ring and fronted Roach. Roach kept checking him and checking him and finally did his Brumagen Bump for the ref stop. If you're going to end it on an injury or knockout that's the way to do it. That's the end of the comp. There's a few odds and ends I may order later, but I've now seen the bulk of the Caswell Martin we have on tape. Unfortunately, I can't in good conscience recommend any of his matches for the 80s set, as the ones that really impressed me were JIP halfway through and the 1982 Marty Jones bout from the Royal Albert Hall is cut short by a shitty finish when it could've gone six rounds and been a certain pick.

Can't believe I watched a 35 minute, 2/3 falls Andre the Giant match. Wild.

Caswell Martin vs. Chic Cullen (1/16/85) Caswell Martin vs. Chic Cullen (2/27/85) These were okay. I've soured on Cullen a bit since going through a period where I was high on him. He has some good stuff that aired on TWC, but this extra original broadcast stuff hasn't pushed his case as a great worker and that's been against some pretty top draw talent. The first match only aired the meat and potatoes of what was a double countout to set up a rematch, so it was never going to be hugely satisfying. The second bout was better, though they did this strange bit of booking where it seemed like it was going to be an injury finish in the second round, but Cullen convinced the ref he was fit to continue. I've seen them do that to great effect in later rounds but never so early. I guess it was meant to draw sympathy for Cullen, but the crowd didn't seem to care that much and Cullen wasn't the sort of performer who could really put over an injury like that. At least the action was stronger than the first bout, though Martin tends to overuse certain pinning combinations. That's a criticism you could probably make of all British wrestlers, however, as those pinning combinations were seen as specialty moves and the workers often scored from them in every single match. Caswell Martin vs. John Elijah (11/5/86) Solid late period match. Going into this I expected a power contest with plenty of strength holds and maybe a bit of mat wrestling from Caswell and that's exactly what I got. Both these guys were reliable performers and two of the better guys on the roster at this late stage, but they were never going to have a four star match outside of the halls maybe. But dependable can be enjoyable with a safe pair of hands.

Caswell Martin vs. Marty Jones (10/16/85) This went 10 rounds of a 15 round title match so not all of it aired on TWC. It was a good contest, but a step down from an epic title match. I think this was generally because it was face vs. face and the better title matches are heel vs. face and Martin wasn't going to take the title, but it was decent enough. Jones was past his best here and on the downhill slide, whereas Martin maintained his form right through to the end of television. Caswell Martin vs. Dave Bond (12/7/81) Dave Bond has what I like to call clumsy enthusiasm, where a worker isn't technically good but has plenty of exuberance. He's most famous for being one half of the Caribbean Sunshine Boys and having some pretty great heat filled bouts against the top faces, but he defied all expectations here by working a sporting bout the whole way through. I've no idea why he wanted to work a pure contest but it was the best he's looked from a technical point of view. A lot of credit for that has to go to Martin who was really great at making guys look good in a technical setting. Really enjoyed this.

Been watching a lot of rudo-driven matches this week, so this one's a tribute to rudoism. Rey Bucanero, Satanico y Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Apolo Dantes, Black Warrior y Dr. Wagner Jr., CMLL 3/21/97 This was a one fall, rudos contra rudos final to decide the vacant trios titles. Since it was a title match, the rudos kept with tradition and worked a technical match instead of brawling with each other. For a single fall match it was a well worked bout and could have been something special if it had been three falls. I loved seeing Satanico work the mat with Wagner. Wagner was one of the unsung heroes of '97 and Satanico was still an extraordinarily talented wrestler at this point. He had a diminishing role within the company after his return from AAA, which I can understand from the promoter's point of view, but as the biggest Satanico mark I know there are so many match-ups I wish we'd gotten with Satanico as a lead guy. This was cool, though, because you weren't getting Satanico vs. Wagner without a turn. The spot where they butt heads with both hands behind their backs should be aped in twenty thirteen. Mascara Año 2000, Universo 2000 y Miguel Perez vs. Pierroth, Apolo Dantes y Emilio Charles Jr., CMLL 10/6/95 This was rudos contra rudos the way it's supposed to be. If Dusty had been calling this, he would've hollered: "there's no honour among thieves in the first place, Alfonso Morales!" This had it all really. Emilio was stretchered out with a rib injury only to return later in the match and have his ass handed to him. Pierroth and Apolo Dantes fought against their opponents three on two, Dantes bladed, the Dinamitas came within a whisker of turning on Perez for eating a fall, and there was a general feeling that this wasn't your regular night out at the wrestling. And to make matters better, it ended in excessive rudosim. Tinieblas Jr, La Fiera y Negro Casas vs. Los Villanos IV, V y Bestia Salvaje, CMLL 7/3/98 Satanico, Black Warrior y Villano III vs. Tinieblas Jr, El Felino y Negro Casas, CMLL 7/28/98 One good thing about 1998 is that you get a lot of Casas vs. Villano III. Sometimes in lucha, trios are the only way you get to see particular match-ups and you're left with these fleeting exchanges to satisfy you. On the other hand, trios teach you which workers were good at working with anybody and are a great leveler in that respect. It's one thing to have an exchange with Negro Casas for the ages and another thing entirely to make Tinieblas Jr. look worthy of stepping in a ring. Tinieblas' biggest problem was that he was a billed 6'4", which was closer to his real height than a worked figure in respect to the size difference between him and most luchadores, and he stuck out like a sore thumb in terms of being less talented. Satanico showed his class by carrying him through some respectable exchanges and Villano IV wasn't far off, but the notable thing about these trios was how good Casas was. I've mentioned before that I don't like the direction Casas took post-97, but these matches were cause for reappraisal. The intensity with which Casas worked and his selling ability made him seem like the best guy in Mexico in 1998, possibly in the world. What we don't have are the singles matches to drive that home, as Casas worked a three match stint with Panther and Satanico to lust for but nothing that made tape. Still, if you're a Casas fan you're going to want to track his starring roles in matches like these. Scorpio Jr. vs. El Hijo del Santo, Leyenda de Plata final, CMLL 7/31/98 This was nice in that the rudo won in front of his father and all but the match itself lacked imagination. Scorpio Jr. looked several times worse than in his '97 trios matches and I couldn't help but think that if Casas had been his opponent it would've been a much better match as Casas was a level above Santo at this point, particularly at selling where there was no real comparison. In fairness to Santo, the match was truncated and he couldn't work the typical El Hijo del Santo formula, but as I said with El Dandy and Signo recently and saw again with Casas and Satanico in this week's viewing, some workers are able to make any exchange look good even against a borderline stiff like Scorpio through their selling and body language, and I'm not sure that Santo was one of those guys. He'll probably prove me wrong in some random trios to come but it didn't happen here. Scorpio Jr, Bestia Salvaje y Pierroth Jr vs. Atlantis, Hijo del Santo y Negro Casas, CMLL 8/20/99 This was total carnage. My enduring image of this was the conclusion with bodies lying everywhere, Santo needing to be stretchered and Casas, having leapt from his own stretcher bed to re-enter the cauldron, surveying the battle scene from the ramp. The technico side was stacked, but the rudos leveled the playing field by making this a pure brawl. Pierroth was never the same after 1992, but he was good value here as the kind of prick who'd partner with Scorpio and Bestia. He cut an awesome promo with Morales where he stopped halfway through to beat up Atlantis some more then kept cutting the promo. Damn I love lucha. Felino, La Fiera y Negro Casas vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr., Black Warrior y Scorpio, Jr., CMLL 4/2/97 This was your typical rudos driven trios where it's mostly slower, more methodical brawling interspersed with the occasional rally from the technicos. A lot of people find this style of lucha boring, and I can see the case for that, but to me matches like these are a strong measure of how creative a rudo is. To prevent these matches from becoming a bore, you really have to make the control segments interesting and I think Wagner around this time grew into one of the rudos capable of doing that. In fact, Casas vs. Wagner is one of my favourite match-ups from '97 that nobody really thinks about when they think about 1997. This was just another installment in a series of rolling trios kind of like how there's been a large number of Casas vs. Rush trios this year, but it's one those matches that shows the quality of TV and depth of the roster for this particular year. Negro Casas, Black Warrior y Emilio Charles Jr vs. Mr.Niebla, El Dandy y Silver King, CMLL 9/6/96 Man, El Dandy must have done some pretty hard living between 1991 and 1996 because he doesn't look anything like he did during his green-eyed, best in the world days. He was still a quality worker, though, and his exchanges with Casas were class. I thought they stole the show a bit from Silver King and Emilio, who were supposed to have the main issue here, but I guess that's a consequence of them being so good. I was also impressed with Mr. Niebla in this match. For once he looked like the future maestro he was made out to be at the time. Felino, La Fiera y Negro Casas vs. Blue Panther, Scorpio Jr. y El Hijo del Santo, CMLL 11/28/97 This was another "story match" where they shuffled along the angle of Santo turning face and teaming with Casas to take on Scorpio and Bestia. Casas was elite here again. I'm not sure there's ever been a better guy in Mexico at working feuds. He pretty much takes on all three guys at once in this match and you could easily imagine it splintering off into him feuding with all three simultaneously. And his look after losing his hair to Santo is probably the best look he ever had. I'm almost tempted to dub this his "badass" phase for a guy who's traditionally been an exhibitionist who blurred the lines a bit about his sexuality. Bestia was at ringside with that fucking nose. Jesus, he looked like W.C. Fields with that honker. Scorpio & Bestia did their horsemen act on Casas, Santo objected to it on principle and the promotion continued the slow tease on the Mega Powers combining. Felino and Panther were superfluous to requirements, but did a few good things. I can't remember if Santo did his tope during this match, but throughout this week's viewing I kept thinking about how Santo's tope has got to be top five. It just looks so good every single time.

CMLL was the best promotion in the world in 1997 with the best TV. I'm not sure why that doesn't come through on the yearbook. One of CMLL's major strengths that year was the undercard and the time given to each match so that you got a lot of quality matches on each episode. It's actually a better year than 1990 despite '89-90 being my absolute favourite period for lucha.

It should be fully up to date. I generally edit it when I add a new match.

Mwahaha, man Brick you need to do run-ins for every thread.

It's definitely not me. My wrestling watching has only picked up lately because I'm not involved in a movies or music poll. Phil Schneider is another guy who watches a lot of wrestling.

Cheers, Johnny.

Ken Joyce vs. Dick Conlon (2/13/75) Ken Joyce is like the lucha maestro of British wrestling. His matwork reminds me of Dos Caras at his most creative. Conlon's a guy I've never seen or heard of before and Walton kept suggesting that this should have been lopsided, but Joyce gave him most of the bout and Conlon did a fantastic job working from the top. A lot of the older WoS guys worked four round showcases in the mid-70s, so it was cool to see Joyce giving his opponent most of this rounds and the result was a highly competitive bout. Not only was he generous with the amount of control he gave Conlon, instead of some easy pinfall to win the bout he pulled out a tombstone piledriver, a move you almost never see in British wrestling and a sign that he had to dig a little deeper to win this one. Good bout.

Caswell Martin vs. Steve Logan (12/4/74) Steve Logan was Mick McManus' long time tag partner. He had jet black hair, no neck and looked a bit like a Dick Tracy character at times. His MO was delivering body shots, both legal and illegal, and there was nothing fancy about the way he wrestled. He was never outwardly charismatic like McManus, instead he got over by being mean. Martin worked this about as perfectly as a baby face can in this situation. Logan was going to get his shit in. It was a Logan bout and Martin was simply the latest guy to step up to the plate, but he showed his technical prowess here and a willingness to wrestle despite Logan's body shots. You could probably make an argument that Martin should have gone over in this era where they were in need of stars or at least milked this more as a potential upset, but Martin came out of it looking the better wrestler and a budding star, part of what Walton dubbed the ITV 8 in the yearbook they put out. Caswell Martin vs. Pete Roberts (JIP 12/17/80) This was joined about halfway through and really was an outstanding contest. It was one of those times where you get Pete Roberts in the ring with someone who can work and the sparks fly. The first couple of falls that were shown featured some awesome grappling and some superb standing exchanges. In the final fall they tried to go for the jugular and it didn't have quite the shape as the previous falls, but it was still a really cracking bout. Ray Steele vs. Caswell Martin (4/7/81) Man, when you can make Ray Steele seem this interesting you really are good. I've seen guys like Terry Rudge, Dalibar Singh and Pat Roach get decent stuff out of Steele, but I've never seen him look this athletic against anybody. Martin just seemed to bring out the best technical qualities in all of the guys he faced. Pat Roach vs. Caswell Martin (JIP 2/24/81) The sound on this was absolutely fucked to the point where I had to watch it on mute, which is a shame because this was an awesome contest. Pat Roach has got to be the most technically gifted big man of all-time. I can't think of a guy his size who could take it to the mat as well as Roach. The pattern I'm seeing with Martin so far as that everybody wants to take it to the mat with him. That's a very good sign for fans like me. Roach got frustrated by how well Martin hung with him and started snubbing Caswell between rounds. Then he started some great borderline shit like headbutts to Caswell's back that were really befitting of the kind of tweener character Roach played most of the time. Unfortunately, Martin jobbed again here. He was very much a "go out there and have an awesome match and job to the stars" talent despite really deserving a run with a belt.

What's the deal with the affiliated channels? When I was in the States a few months ago and I wanted to watch the NBA Finals I thought finding the ABC would be as simple as the ABC is on channel 6 or something like that. Do people recognise the affiliate as the affiliate or do they just consider it the ABC?

The answer is no... Not only "no," but he didn't play the pissed off baby face as often as he should have. It was something Monsoon used to always go on about, which I suppose can be interpreted as a dig. If Tito had got angry more he'd probably have double the amount of good matches that he had. He's not really a matches guy, he's a feud guy. Some great feuds which produced good matches, but you can't just stick on a Tito match and expect it to be good.

OK, I'm going to talk about a worker that very few of you have probably heard of, Caswell Martin. Martin was part of the contingent of British workers billed as being from the West Indies and made his professional debut in the early 70s. He was a worker with excellent amateur credentials and had a similar sort of build and athletic prowess to Clive Myers, for those of you who are familiar with Clive. He came along at a time when the public were beginning to tire of the older stars like McManus, Pallo, Kellett and Logan and where there were real opportunities for a young black star to replace the aging Johnny Kwango and Masambula. Martin was a wrestler's wrestler, however, and never adopted any sort of gimmick for television or the halls and didn't play to the galleries as Walton was so fond of saying. He had a nickname "Cast Iron" Caswell Martin, but the only real change he made to his image over the years was dying his fringe. For this reason, he never received the push that was projected for him in the mid-70s and had more success in the German tournaments than he did on the home front, but he was a reliable and solid performer who worked the bills right up to the end of television. And more importantly for us, he was an excellent worker. When I first started seeking out WoS footage, he was one of the earliest workers to leave an impression on me outside the name workers. It's been a while since I've seen a Martin match, but I got a custom made comp of footage I hadn't see and so far the results have been impressive. Martin is definitely up there with the better British workers of his era. Reviews to follow.

Loss' take on Joshi is interesting since not many people watch it these days outside of a pretty closed group of fans and youtube users. The "name" Joshi fans, so to speak, have all drifted away so it's been rewarding to see Loss discover and re-evaluate stuff. I would be interesting for you guys to discuss your issues with Joshi with Loss and perhaps Loss can explain what does and doesn't bother him about the style. Not an entire show perhaps but once Joshi becomes a bit more prominent say around '93.

I don't see Spiros Arion on your list. Is this everybody?

Business was dropping in England in the mid-70s as fans grew tired of seeing the same older stars like McManus, Pallo, Kellett and Logan. I might dig watching the 70s footage we have of them, but they were in the 50s by that point and a few of them in their 60s. Joint Promotions tried to push some younger workers around this time and a few of them became mainstays like Steve Grey, Mark Rocco and Marty Jones, but it was clearly Daddy and Haystacks and John Quinn, the heavyweights and super heavyweights, who drew the last of the big houses for Joint. If Daddy had worked properly like in the Elijah match instead of being a lazy fuck all the time, it wouldn't be so hard to contemplate him in the HOF. As for Blue Panther and Atlantis, Panther was obviously better on the mat and was Atlantis' best singles opponent (and vice versa, really), but I don't think Panther was as good a trios worker as Atlantis nor do I think he was as good a technico or rudo in terms of playing a role. Panther was never really the greatest brawler and a lot of his hair and mask matches are weak. In fact, there are quite a few weakish Panther singles matches in general. I'd rather watch Panther against another top worker than watch him try to carry Love Machine, for example. So, I don't think there was a vast difference in their in-ring ability even if there were times such as the end of '97/early '98 where Panther is off the charts.

I see what you mean. Virus strikes as a guy who's a fantastic worker and a midcarder, whose title matches are excellent without having a big match feel. A lot of it boils down to opportunities I suppose. Terry Rudge would be another example if we only had his WoS stuff, but watching him go longer on German houseshows we know he can work a big match.