ohtani's jacket

Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers (10/11/83) Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers (3/23/83) Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers (1/28/86) Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers (3/5/84) These two are a bit like Solar and Negro Navarro in that they do a lot of the same spots in each match but are still breathtaking to watch. The second match is a tournament quarterfinal and a bit shorter than usual and the third match is ruined by a confusing double pin finish where nobody seemed to know what was going on, so that leaves us with the first and fourth matches. The first match is similar to the '85 match I was pimping the other day. They do a lot of the same spots. What makes it fun is that the crowd seem to attuned to the fact that this isn't your normal Saturday afternoon wrestling and that these two guys are a step above everybody else. The fourth match is a hell of a draw with tremendous action all the way through. Myers even did a bit of martial arts and it didn't bother me as it was possibly the best karate kick spot I've ever seen. At the end of the bout, the ref Ken Joyce gets on the mic and puts Myers and Grey over as two of the best wrestlers anywhere in the world. This really was *the* WoS workrate match-up. I'm surprised I've slept on their 80s stuff so badly.

I never liked Austin much in WCW and for Pillman I thought it was a huge step down from the Windham tag team and the end of his good period as a worker. From memory, they had one or two matches I liked but you can make a direct comparison between the Steamboat/Douglas stuff and Pillman with Windham then Austin and I don't think the Blondes stuff is as good. Maybe I'll rewatch them some day but they remind me a bit of Los Gringos Locos in terms of 90s teams that don't quite match their rep.

Yes. I would rather watch Stars and Stripes or Pretty Wonderful any day of the week.

History has a lot to account for, like telling us that the Blondes were good.

That High Flyers vs. Tito and Martel tag is all about the babyface offence. That really is one of the best face vs. face matches you'll ever see.

Why'd you vote for Daddy?

I'm writing about some of these matches on my blog: So the DVDVR set has finally been released and with it a great opportunity for folks to be introduced to lucha or have their exposure broadened. I'm going to write about a few matches I haven't seen before or which interest me for some reason, starting with this Chicana title fight. Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza (10/28/83) First thing's first, Mocho Cota was the coolest looking second. Wearing a t-shirt and towel over suit pants and pointed leather shoes with his fresh for '83 hair cut that Gran Cochisse had inflicted on him the month before. I love that he's still sporting his Faustian beard. That motherfucker was one cool cat. Sangre Chicana is one of the greatest brawlers in lucha libre history and a tremendous performer. This was when he was still a man of the people and hadn't degenerated into one of the scummiest looking wrestlers who ever lived, and a rare opportunity to see him tackle the art of title match wrestling. The impression I got was that he wasn't much of a mat worker. He knew a few holds, but this was worked as more of a mano a mano bout than a lucha title match and I don't think it was because of Ringo, whom I've seen have some impressive first caida mat outings. What I did like about this was the general structure. It wasn't a great match by any stretch of the imagination but it had a steady build. I liked how cagey they were with their early approaches and how the first hold they agreed to ended up on the outside and back in the ring. The facets of pro-wrestling that Chicana excelled at were intensity and selling and that gave his matches a real energy even when they were low arcing and minimalistic like this one. There was a backbreaker spot that I thought could be the finish. I hadn't bitten on a near fall like that in ages and it was totally because of Chicana's selling. Where this match fell over was the finish. Double pin finishes suck. You can hem and haw and try to justify them but it's an immutable truth. It didn't seem to bother the crowd though as they mobbed Chicana at the end and carried him out on their shoulders, which seemed like a bit of an over-reaction to what actually happened in the ring, but was another snapshot of how wrestling used to be in Mexico back when fans could still enter the ring. The guy waving to his family was a great "Hi, Mom" moment for the cameras.

So the DVDVR set has finally been released and with it a great opportunity for folks to be introduced to lucha or have their exposure broadened. I'm going to write about a few matches I haven't seen before or which interest me for some reason, starting with this Chicana title fight. Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza (10/28/83) First thing's first, Mocho Cota was the coolest looking second. Wearing a t-shirt and towel over suit pants and pointed leather shoes with his fresh for '83 hair cut that Gran Cochisse had inflicted on him the month before. I love that he's still sporting his Faustian beard. That motherfucker was one cool cat. Sangre Chicana is one of the greatest brawlers in lucha libre history and a tremendous performer. This was when he was still a man of the people and hadn't degenerated into one of the scummiest looking wrestlers who ever lived, and a rare opportunity to see him tackle the art of title match wrestling. The impression I got was that he wasn't much of a mat worker. He knew a few holds, but this was worked as more of a mano a mano bout than a lucha title match and I don't think it was because of Ringo, whom I've seen have some impressive first caida mat outings. What I did like about this was the general structure. It wasn't a great match by any stretch of the imagination but it had a steady build. I liked how cagey they were with their early approaches and how the first hold they agreed to ended up on the outside and back in the ring. The facets of pro-wrestling that Chicana excelled at were intensity and selling and that gave his matches a real energy even when they were low arcing and minimalistic like this one. There was a backbreaker spot that I thought could be the finish. I hadn't bitten on a near fall like that in ages and it was totally because of Chicana's selling. Where this match fell over was the finish. Double pin finishes suck. You can hem and haw and try to justify them but it's an immutable truth. It didn't seem to bother the crowd though as they mobbed Chicana at the end and carried him out on their shoulders, which seemed like a bit of an over-reaction to what actually happened in the ring, but was another snapshot of how wrestling used to be in Mexico back when fans could still enter the ring. The guy waving to his family was a great "Hi, Mom" moment for the cameras.

Steve Grey vs. Pete LaPaque (6/13/83) This was billed as Grey getting a title shot at British Welterweight champ Alan Dennison, but Dennison broke his thumb a few days before the bout so the promoters had to postpone the fight. Instead, these two had a heck of a match, presumably to make up for the crowd's disappointment. LaPaque was a bit of a journeyman rudo and more of a tag worker than a singles guy, but he had a great look for a journeyman rudo and he could work. The bout was built around LaPaque legally (and illegally) working over Grey's leg and forcing him to submit with an agonising looking submission, Grey firing up and bringing his A game and LaPaque using every trick in the book to avoid Grey's retaliation. Highly entertaining.

Somebody needs to teach you about the finer things in life, Jerry. Like matwork. Endless matwork.

Since I'm now an unabashed fan of Ken Joyce, I went back and had another look at his 1975 match against Steve Grey. It's not quite as even as it would be in later years as Grey was still proving himself, but there was some wonderful and creative stuff on show and a few good chuckles. Steve Grey vs. Mike Jordan (11/13/85) Not a big fan of Mike Jordan. For some reason people seem to like him, but this match did nothing to sway me in that direction. There was some decent title match action, but they weren't given enough time. It didn't help that the finish was one of those injury finishes where you're like "fuck this." Steve Grey vs. Sid Cooper (12/15/82) For a tournament semi-final this was solid stuff. Cooper was long in the tooth here, but he was a savvy vet who knew how to work a crowd, and as I said at the outset Grey is one of the most likeable babyfaces ever. This wasn't anything special outside of that babyface/heel dynamic, but it was well done.

Did the WWF commentators at the time ever refer to houseshow matches? Personally, I had read about the houeshow results on some old angelfire or tripod website, but always thought it was kind of obvious from the way it was worked and the stage it was wrestled on that Steamboat was trying to keep it clean and win the belt. What did it inspire 15 years later?

Steve Grey vs. Ken Joyce (9/3/80) Only a fall and a half of this survives. Tragedy! Looked similar to their '79 bout. They repeated the same awesome surfboard spot. Steve Grey vs. Tony Costas (11/8/80) Steve Grey vs. Tony Costas (6/15/82) The footage we have of these is only really the scoring falls, which is disappointing because I wanted to see what sort of matwork they were capable of. The first match was a looser, more up tempo tournament match with a Grey injury storyline. The second was slower and closer to the bout I wanted to see, but the first three falls were missing. Oh well. Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers (3/20/85) Every time I get a comp made I make the mistake of ordering stuff I've already seen, but watching this again was a bit of a revelation. The first time I watched Myers and Grey's 80s stuff I had a natural prejudice towards it because it wasn't as cool as their 70s stuff and I hate the Iron First gimmick. What I saw this time was an excellent match, one of the best of the 80s in fact, and possibly the most beautiful draw I've ever witnessed in a wrestling match or close to it. I usually hate draws in wrestling and I especially hate the way they're worked with wrestlers being out of sync with the clock and not showing enough urgency at the end, but here the workers were so good that the old cliche of nobody deserving to lose held true. This was wrestled differently from their 70s matches as Myers had a totally different stance doing his kung fu gimmick, but the work was sensational. They did a headscissors spot that was absolutely mind blowing. Some people may not like the comedy that occasionally drifted into the bout especially later on when the stakes grew higher, but this was about as good a face vs. face, champion vs. champion WoS bout got in the 80s.

What are these other Loss lists we aren't privy to?

Steve Grey vs. Ken Joyce (3/14/79) Ken Joyce is the maestro of British professional wrestling. When I first got into European stuff, I didn't appreciate how good he was, but the guy is basically the Blue Panther of British wrestling if that comparison works for you; the Terry Funk of British wrestling if you're the type who sticks more to your American wrestling roots. When people talk about Johnny Saint or Steve Wright being synonymous with the British style it's all bullshit. Joyce is the master. This was super fun. Grey slipped into his everyman role I told you about and was the perfect opponent for Joyce's maestroness. That's not a word, but I just coined it. Grey really was the ultimate match-up. I'm struggling to think of any worker he couldn't work with throughout his 20 year television run. Joyce came out of retirement two or three times and this was part of his final run that lasted through to '82. I haven't thought about it too seriously, but he almost represents the last vestige of the superior 60s/70s style since the stars of that era had faded out by this point par a sparing few. The amount of creativity he put into a single bout was astounding. This was really neat.

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.