ohtani's jacket

I'm not a big fan of Los Cowboys. Bestia was a fantastic worker around '92-93 and dependable later on. I totally forgot about him. He's a strong hand. Canek was mechanically good but lacked the kind of genius I like from workers. The minis were good workers but I really haven't seen enough from then. I've seen more Mascarita Dorada than Sagrada. I'd be tempted to list then on the strength of what I have seen, but there's a lot of one offs who could get in on that basis.

Something more than archetypes? Archetypes are fine for following the basic narrative of the match, but look at how much El Boricua's translations added to the Puerto Rico fued. Perhaps I'm over imagining what people mean by context, but to me when people mention the Misawa/Kawada dynamic my gut reaction is to question what they mean. Why was there animosity between Misawa and Kawada? Why did they break up? These questions are difficult to answer and yet they'd be crucial to any understanding of American wrestling. What generally happens is that people focus on Kawada's hard luck story, but was that really the theme of their feud? Again, it's difficult to say. So to me I think the context people are looking for isn't really out there. I'd even go so far to say that we've created out own context for many of these matches over the years through our reviews and so forth.

I'm trying to think of a situation where an interviewer or a podcast host would correct a guest's memory of certain events in even a joking way. Seems like bad etiquette.

Long time puroresu fans think Akira Fukuzawa is a great commentator when he's clearly not. They have no clue about Ichiro Furutachi and Kotetsu Yamamoto or Takao Kuramochi or Kenji Wakabayashi. There's a huge amount that's lost on fans. What they're left with is the basics. They know that Hokuto hates Kandori, but they don't know why exactly because they can't understand what she's saying about her. That doesn't mean that they can't enjoy the matches, but they fill in the gaps with their own interpretation of the work or focus on the booking, i.e. wrestler A fought wrestler B in this tag match, then they had this singles match and so forth.

Felino was well established at this point as an upper midcarder. The win here was more about giving him momentum leading into his summer feud against Santo, I think.

I don't know about CMLL TV these days, but in the past lucha booking has been hugely confusing. Understanding the commentary from my experience would be a huge boon. Of course, I still find ways to enjoy it, but I still find things like the Santo heel turn difficult to follow.

My apologies if I've misunderstood you, but it's easy to pick up the context from American wrestling as the announcing and the promos are all in English. A kid can start watching and following it, as many of us did as children. And children by and large don't need context as they learn as they go, though I do remember asking an uncle of mine all sorts of stupid questions when I first discovered wrestling. Japanese wrestling is a stab in the dark when it comes to those things. You can read up on it, read what other people have written or recommended, but a lot is lost even on hardcore viewers. Imagine how much less you'd understand about American workers if you couldn't understand what they were saying or what they were feuding about. You could still get a sense of atmosphere and emotion, but a lot of the nuances would be lost and that's generally what happens with Japanese wrestling. I'm sure there are Japanese storytelling traits you can find in Japanese wrestling, but overcoming adversity or great odds and still coming through fighting and winning is actually probably the most overwhelming theme in all of Japanese literature, though it often has a tragic, if not pessimistic outcome. Humility isn't a hugely defining characteristic of Japanese workers. I wouldn't call Choshu, Hokuto, Akira Maeda or Aja Kong humble for example. Nor Takada, Ozaki, Chigusa or Jumbo Tsuruta.

Re: the Villano/Rambo match The clipping hurt it a bit, but other than that I think it would take pride of place amongst the best brawls of the 80s. Villano bled a shitload and the third caida had some great moments of desperation. I liked the finish a lot more after Rambo unmasked and began complaining. So began a lifetime of being screwed over by Villano III.

Psicosis was a hugely charismatic heel who had some fantastic comedy spots like when he'd deliberately slip on the apron and berate the crowd for laughing at him, and he was as crazy a bumper as Pirata Morgan, Emilio or Cassandro, but mechanically I think he's the worst of anyone on the list. He wasn't a great mat worker and a lot of the time his offence was sloppy. A decent hand to me is someone who is better than average. Everyone I listed is a worker I'd go out of my way to see if I found them in a match on YouTube. I decided not to include any negative categories. EDIT: I changed "decent" to "solid" to more accurately describe the workers. Los Traumas are in there under the strong hands category. Super Astro was always in there. I like Super Astro but Super Astro has his schtick and he does it in every single match. That's his thing. It's fun schtick and it's crowd pleasing and it works just about every time, but I'd take Super Porky over him every time for variety of schtick. Estrada ain't making my list, but I've seen good Jerry Estrada matches so I won't shit on him right now. As for Atlantis, I think he's one of the greatest technico trios workers of all-time, a role I think is much more difficult than being a great rudo worker. I think he's one of the great classical masked luchadores and before he toned down his in-ring style I think he was a pretty sensational worker. My biggest criticism of him is that he wasn't the greatest singles worker. He only really has the two Panther matches from '91 and '97 and the Villano match from 2000 as his great singles matches with possibly the El Faraon match being on that level and maybe the late 80s Emilio Charles match, despite having ample opportunity to work both title and apuestas matches. His singles matches are usually worth watching, but a lot of them are in that three star range. There's probably some good ones that are lost to us, but generally speaking he impresses me most in trios. There was a period where you could have two or three great rudo workers vs. Atlantis and just about anybody and it would be a good trios match. He's also pretty good these days, though he generally wrestles a bunch of guys I have no interest in watching. Yeah, I was trying to be objective with the top guys. As you know, I have issues with Santo, Panther and Casas and am probably more enthusiastic about the second tier guys in general, but I can't really deny the legacy those three have built up. I haven't really seen enough Javier Llanes to know where to rate him. I like watching the Capos and Rayo, particularly Universo 2000, but I can't really rate them as top tier workers in good faith. Maybe if I watch a bit more of their 80s stuff, though that's never impressed me hugely. A bit more of Universo's later run might persuade me to put him in one of the categories. I'd rather hear your thoughts since we reviewed a lot of that together. I'm sure there's a lot of people I've forgotten. Skyade is one of them, though I don't think I've seen that much of his actual work in Mexico. Rambo I would probably rate as a decent/solid hand. I didn't know Alfredo finally got a copy of that mask match. I'm off to watch it.

OK, so I've worked my way back into watching a fair bit of lucha again and since there's some excitement over the DVDVR 80s set, I thought I'd give this ago. I'm bound to forget some names, but here's what I've got: All-Time Greats Satanico, El Dandy, Negro Casas, El Hijo del Santo, Blue Panther Great Workers Emilio Charles, Jr., Atlantis, Pirata Morgan, Solar, Lizmark, Black Terry, Negro Navarro, Virus, Sangre Chicana, Villano III Excellent Workers Cassandro, Espanto Jr., MS-1, La Fiera, Fuerza Guerrera, El Signo, Dos Caras Strong Hands Angel Azteca, Perro Aguayo, Villano IV, Villano V, Dr. Cerebro, Apolo Dantes, Javier Cruz, Black Man, Herodes, Ringo Mendoza, Mocho Cota, El Faraon, El Texano, Silver King, Gran Cochise, Americo Rocca, Dr. Wagner, Jr., LA Park, Los Brazos, Valiente, Demus 3:16, Pierrothito, Los Traumas, Felino, Ciclon Ramirez, Cicloncito Ramirez, Bestia Salvaje Solid Hands Sergio El Hermoso, Ultraman, Super Astro, Freelance, Chico Che, Espectro Jr, Hombre Bala, Maskare, Tony Salazar, Psicosis, Pierroth This was really hard. I'll add more as I think of them.

I wrote about that Emilio Charles/Atlantis match in my latest blog entry: Atlantis vs. Emilio Charles Jr., NWA World Middleweight Championship match, CMLL 3/22/91 This was a good title match, but not a great one. It was notable for a performance from Emilio Charles, Jr. that was pretty close to prime Charles. It wasn't one of Atlantis' better performances, however, though this was offset somewhat by him doing a lot of long term selling which fit into the narrative of his title being at risk. The first fall had some typically good Atlantis/Charles matwork as these two had a good working chemistry. I liked the way that Charles was able to outfox Atlantis, keep him at arm's distance and finally work his way towards the standing submission he wanted. Intelligent heel workers is one of the things that really endears me to lucha and title matches are obviously where they get to showcase their ability most. Unfortunately, Atlantis' comebacks in the match weren't timed as well as you'd expect. That's an issue as said comebacks are important turning points in lucha libre title matches. Charles covered for the first comeback by producing some of his classic bumping and selling, but things stalled a bit in the third caida. There were some good dives, but Atlantis actually blew the spot he was supposed to make his comeback on. Charles was able to lay into him a bit and cover for the mistake and Atlantis sold the slip like it was a result of match fatigue, but it took me out of the match a bit. And unfortunately, the finish was not so much poor conceived as poorly timed. None of this should take away from a top performance from Emilio, but it's a match that could've been a lot better.

Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Pierroth vs. Atlantis/Super Astro/Angel Azteca, CMLL 11/8/91 This was nowhere near as good as these teams are capable of, but there was still a lot of talent on show. I liked how we got some match-ups that you don't usually see like Fuerza vs. Angel Azteca. It's always bugged me how they didn't do more with Azteca during his cooling off period. They groomed him to be the next Atlantis, at least in my eyes, and then he fell by the wayside as Octagon got over. Of course they've gotten another two decades out of Atlantis, and there's nothing to suggest he wouldn't have jumped to AAA even with a bigger push, but in my revisionist little brain he ought to have been a bigger star instead of being lost in the shuffle. Anyway, to cut back to the match, the Fuerza/Azteca exchanges were a lot of fun and something you good folks should check out. There was also a great nod to the Atlantis/Panther rivalry where they had a brief stare off before locking up. The negatives were that it was a one fall bout so lacked the rhythm of an ordinary trios match, Pierroth was about 1/5th as good as he'd become in 1992 and they became overly obsessed with double leg takedowns during the finishing stretch. Blue Panther vs. Octagon, National Middleweight Championship match, AAA 4/30/94 Never heard of this one? Possibly because it's one of the worst title matches in lucha history. You look at this on paper and you think, "gee, I wonder what Blue Panther can do with Octagon in a title match" and then you get an endless repetitious stalling exchange where Octagon won't let Tirantes check his boots, a bunch of non-title match looking action that wouldn't wash in a mano a mano bout, and to top it all off a title change on a freakin' DQ. Octagon spent longer celebrating with whoever the old guy was seconding him and the woman who joined them in the ring at the end than he did wrestling. Really just a joke of a title match. Atlantis vs. Emilio Charles Jr., NWA World Middleweight Championship match, CMLL 3/22/91 This was a good title match, but not a great one. It was notable for a performance from Emilio Charles, Jr. that was pretty close to prime Charles. It wasn't one of Atlantis' better performances, however, though this was offset somewhat by him doing a lot of long term selling which fit into the narrative of his title being at risk. The first fall had some typically good Atlantis/Charles matwork as these two had a good working chemistry. I liked the way that Charles was able to outfox Atlantis, keep him at arm's distance and finally work his way towards the standing submission he wanted. Intelligent heel workers is one of the things that really endears me to lucha and title matches are obviously where they get to showcase their ability most. Unfortunately, Atlantis' comebacks in the match weren't timed as well as you'd expect. That's an issue as said comebacks are important turning points in lucha libre title matches. Charles covered for the first comeback by producing some of his classic bumping and selling, but things stalled a bit in the third caida. There were some good dives, but Atlantis actually blew the spot he was supposed to make his comeback on. Charles was able to lay into him a bit and cover for the mistake and Atlantis sold the slip like it was a result of match fatigue, but it took me out of the match a bit. And unfortunately, the finish was not so much poor conceived as poorly timed. None of this should take away from a top performance from Emilio, but it's a match that could've been a lot better. Atlantis/El Dandy/Octagon vs. Satanico/Emilio Charles Jr./Kung Fu, CMLL 10/12/90 One of those fun advance the angle matches. In this case, the main angle was Atlantis vs. Kung Fu with Dandy and Satanico being a secondary issue. Emilio slotted right in there as the guy with historic issues against both Dandy and Atlantis. Satanico/Mascara Ano 2000/Pirata Morgan vs. El Dandy/Sangre Chicana/El Faraon, CMLL 11/2/90 This was the same sort of story as the match above, but much more disappointing given the talent involved. The highlight of the match for me was Mascara Ano 2000 being thrown to the outside and then flinging himself into the ring post because he was dizzy. That made me laugh. Was expecting far more from the technicos. Negro Casas/MS-1/Jerry Estrada vs. Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada/Panterita del Ring, Monterrey October 1991 This was pretty piss poor. I wasn't kidding when I said Monterrey was a vacation for some of these guys. Jerry Estrada didn't do anything until a comedy bump after the match where he took out the television interviewer and it took forever for Atlantis to enter the match. Casas was a pest and had some decent exchanges with Panterita, but he also worked this silly submission spot where he had Panterita hunched in the corner and he was standing on the middle rope posing to the crowd and occasionally wrenching the arm as the other rudos meandered around doing lazy rudo brawling. This went on for a good three or four minutes and I probably should have tuned out at that point. Casas did have a rad UWA jacket, though. Satanico, MS 1 & Pirata Morgan vs. Lizmark, Mascara Sagrada & Atlantis, CMLL 1991 This was a classic Infernales match filled with all sorts of smooth double and triple teaming. We obviously don't have the full picture on lucha libre trios and which teams were the most influential in establishing the style, but it's hard to believe that Los Infernales didn't lay down some of the groundwork in teams of rudo teamwork. This was your run-of-the-mill TV match not your all-time classic that people yearn for, but it's always a pleasure to enjoy how solid these by the numbers television matches were. Lizmark spent a lot of this match with the top of his mask missing and his hair sticking out. He looked a bit like Super Muñeco. He had some beautiful exchanges, but what really stuck out for me on the technico side was how good Sagrada looked. I don't think I've ever seen him as on point as he was here. Not sure if that was because of the Infernales or if Sagrada just had his head together, but it surprised me. There was also a spectacular sequence in the match where Atlantis took on the Infernales three on one, first in the ring and then again on the outside. The Infernales bumped for his spinning back breaker better than anybody else and Pirata took his trademark back bodydrop bump over the top rope which never fails to wow me. This was some seriously exciting stuff and one of Atlantis' best ever trios moments.

The same reason the one that got away gets bigger every time the story is told? A lot of this is human nature as much as it is carny bullshit, it's just that wrestlers spend a lifetime cutting promos so it runs off the tongue a bit easier than retired sports stars who think everything was better in their day. It's as much a hang up for wrestling fans who get annoyed at factual incorrect information than it is some kind of psychological disorder.

I don't see how it has anything to do with ignorance. If it doesn't appeal to you then it doesn't appeal to you. I don't really buy this context stuff. Most of us started with no context and began from scratch. And since most fans don't understand much Japanese, you don't get the proper context anyway, just their interpretation of the booking and events. I think it's more important that you get a feel for the mood or tone of Japanese wrestling.

Don't you think that's true of any style of wrestling? 1991 wasn't Aja or Toyota's peak. They had two well regarded matches in 1994 and 1995 as they entered their peak. For me, the lineage of greatness was always Jackie Sato, Jaguar Yokota and Chigusa Nagayo. Sato was obviously a lesser worker than the others, but for her time and the development of the Joshi style to that point she was the woman and would have had a lot of great matches with the later generation if the timing had been different.

"El Ninja", Kato Kung Lee & Super Astro vs. Black Shadow Jr, Invasor II & Espanto Jr, Monterrey 11/91 Great to see Espanto again, one of the most underrated luchadores of this era. Unfortunately, he didn't do anything truly outstanding, even in his exchanges with Super Astro, but Monterrey was a bit of a holiday for the workers at times and this was one of those nights off. The focus was really on the upcoming mask match between El Ninja and Invasor, but Monterrey has always been this hodgepodge of great workers and heavily gimmicked shit. The good workers were only there to make up the numbers, but it was all right. The highlight was probably Super Astro doing his dance routine followed by Kato Kung Lee doing a pretty outstanding imitation of it, but when Astro's dance number is the highlight you might want to skip it. Negro Casas/Espanto Jr vs. Super Pinocho/Halcon 78, Arena Neza 1992 I doubt anyone will agree with me, but to me Casas was so much more creative in the earlier part of his recorded career than he is now. He wasn't at his sublime best here, but he worked at least one exchange with Super Pinocho where you thought "only Casas would think to do that." This was your typically solid early 90s UWA television match. They never reach great heights, but the wrestling is always worth watching. Espanto Jr/Dr. Wagner Jr vs. Villano IV & V, UWA 1992 The Villanos are broken down warhorses these days. Villano III could barely string his sentences together when interviewed on his brother's retirement show. The younger brothers can still brawl with the best of them, but if you're ever in need of a reminder of how good Los Villanos were these UWA matches are the best footage we have of prime IV & V. This was an excellent lucha tag match. It didn't have an epic enough third caida to make it onto a yearbook or anything like that, but it had a bit of everything and there was plenty to like if you're an aficionado. Espanto and Villano IV had a swank opening mat exchange that was the best you'll see from Espanto in these three matches, the Villano family provided their usual blend of scientific wrestling and roughhousing and I loved Wagner's clumsy enthusiasm. The finish was one of the more brutal looking, Perro Aquayo style La Sillas I've seen. A Villano taking out Wagner like that is a ton of beef colliding. Mario Segura "El Ninja", El Dandy, Tigre Canadiense vs. Los Misioneros de la Muerte "Negro Navarro, Signo y Black Power," Monterrey 1992 This was a surprising long trios match with a lengthy El Dandy face-in-peril section. My eyes light up when I saw this was Dandy vs. Misioneros thinking we might get a Dandy/Navarro section, but to be brutally honest Navarro wasn't much chop at this point. He focused a lot of his schtick on his physique and being the "strength guy" in the Misioneros. The real worker of the group was Signo and the Signo/Dandy exchanges we got were actually better than if Dandy had squared off against Navarro. Throughout the match, it was noticeable how much better Dandy and Signo were than everyone else, even when doing simple exchanges like clearing workers from the ring. Their ability to make every exchange a flurry of activity made them continually stand out. Signo was a really good worker and it's worth watching this to see him go toe-to-toe with Dandy even if the other workers aren't so inspiring. Tigre seemed high on something, Segura did some goofy shit that was vaguely amusing, Navarro was disappointing and Black Power was his usual journeyman-esque self, but Dandy vs. Signo was really, really good. Centurion Negro, Los Matematicos II & IV vs. Pirata de la Muerte, Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano, Arena Coliseo Monterrey early 90s In the annals of lucha libre history there is a hatred that's gone unrecorded and that hatred is the hatred between Jose Luis Feliciano and Centurion Negro. This was some of the coolest shit I've seen in a while as these guys didn't care that there was a match going on with rules and purses and other guys involved. Terry was awesome here as well. He was a bit part to Feliciano, a role I guess he's always been comfortable playing, but he did the cockiest facial expressions this side of Ric Flair cutting a promo in the TBS studios. What a legend. This was all about Feliciano though, who looked like the sixth member of The Blue Oyster Cult. The fact that Feliciano and Negro never had a documented hair vs. mask match is a huge disappointment to me as few luchadores have ever had such antagonistic hair as Feliciano. Fun match.

It's not a personal attack. I don't know you well enough to make any sort of personal judgement and even if I did I'm not attached to wrestling opinions enough to attack you personally. It's just my opinion. Lucha hair matches and lucha title matches are rich in history, rich in character and rich in narrative. I don't see how there's any more basic a narrative than rudo vs. technico and then when you add a set of rules and conventions you have the grounds for some pretty basic storytelling.

Lucha matches have narratives, especially the type of matches that made the set. They have more of a narrative than Demolition matches or WWF squash matches.

Hijo Del Centurion Negro, Rey Hechicero, Simbolo vs. Black Spirit, Charles Lucero, Golden Boy, Monterrey 7/21/13 Monterrey has kind of snuck up on me as a good place to watching wrestling from. This was my first look at maestro Charles Lucero, who's supposed to be cut from the same cloth as Mexico's other maestro greats, but for me this was all about Rey Hechicero, who continues to impress. The other guys were there to make up the numbers and aside from the Hechicero/Lucero exchanges this wasn't very good. El Angel vs. Trauma II vs. Oficial 911, IWRG 3/3/13 This as nowhere near as good as the three way the week before and the mascara contra mascara section was nothing special. I liked the finish, though, and it got a good pop from the Naucalpan faithful. You've got to love those Naucalpan-goers, from the kids trying to do come off the ropes and do rolling bumps in the ring to the guys who refuse to leave their seats during brawls and are terrible bases for the workers who come flying at them. Ruleta de la Muerta Rd 1, La Última de un Villano 3/16/13 Okay, so the whole thing was put up by the Tercera Caída guys and no-one seems to have gone through it, so I thought I would. Worst case scenario I get to see two more Cassandro matches. 1a. Cien Caras & Dr. Wagner, Jr. vs. Solar & Toscano -- Match started out with quite a lengthy exchange between Wagner and Solar. That's a match I'd quite like to see, free from all the bullshit, although it's probably five or six years too late given that Solar is approaching 60. The next few years is a bit of a concern if you like the maestros as they really are on the wrong side of 55. Still, the exchanges were pretty good. This was the longest of the first round matches as Mendoza had to get his money's worth out of Wagner, I suppose. Caras was Caras; Wagner did his usual schtick. Women in the crowd argued with him. He took plunder into the ring. Decent opener to the tournament. 1b. Máscara Año 2000 & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Cassandro & Hijo de Pirata Morgan -- Much shorter bout, no qualms about presenting this as lopsided. Highlights were Cassandro whaling away on the much larger Rayo and his nutty, Psicosis-style ringpost bump. Los Dinamitas beat Rayo up after the match for old times' sake. 1c. El Mesías & Mil Mascaras vs. Ray Mendoza Jr. & Villano IV -- Mesias and Villano IV were okay on the mat as long as things kept moving. When they were stationary, it was pretty lame. Mascaras must be about 80 now. I liked seeing him tie Mendoza up on the mat, but he can't do his signature spots very well. Not a great match-up for the Villanos, but they showed Mascaras the usual respect. 1d. LA Park & Universo 2000 vs. Súper Nova & Texano Jr. -- This also went long, again presumably because of Park's booking fee. Universo has lost a step since that CMLL run that Raging Noodles and I were so fond of, but I still like him. He gave Texano, Jr. a whipping but good with the bull rope. Super Nova and Texano provided, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most highspots in the opening round. Charles Lucero vs. Rey Hechicero, Monterrey 7/28/13 This was a sweet match. Lucero wasn't exactly Picasso on the mat, but he was pretty good. He had a different style from a lot of the other maestros. It was almost like traditional NWA style matwork in the vein of Ray Mendoza or Enrique Vera, whereas Hechicero provided more of the "lucha" touches. Nice little narrative here with Lucero getting tired of trading holds and throwing a punch. Having watched far too much British and European wrestling of late the first strike from a frustrated rudo is quite familiar. Hechicero could have perhaps retaliated a bit more, but when he took back the reins I thought his swinging moves were really cool. This served its purpose well for the title match which followed. Solar & Toscano vs. Cassandro & Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Ruleta de la Muerta 3/16/13 Back to the Villano show. I was hoping for an epic Solar/Cassandro match-up here, but they went the more sensible route and had Solar/Morgan and Cassandro/Toscano pairings. The work was pretty solid and what you'd expect from trio matches where they've gone once round the horn with matwork and are squaring off for running rope exchanges. Cassandro's injury was legit. Toscano drop kicked him off the turnbuckle and he took a nasty bump to the outside. The match was rushed a bit after that, though that may simply have been the nature of the beast since it was Ruleta, but there as plenty of flash in the finishing sequence and for this type of thing it wasn't a bad match. For those of you keeping record at home, there's nothing missing from the earlier YouTube clip I wrote about that showed the next two Villanos matches back-to-back. As for the overall show, it was an easy watch. Ruleta de la Muerta is what it is in terms of match quality, but there was a lot of star value here. It's just too bad it wrecked Mendoza, Jr. Charles Lucero vs. Rey Hechicero, Monterrey 8/4/13 The big title match. This was cranking along nicely with the same mix of matwork and inside shots from Lucero, and wasn't any better or worse than the match that proceeded it, until what was probably the spot of the year. In the third caida, they decided to go epic in classic lucha title match fashion and they did a tope spot where Rey Hechicero missed Lucero completely and dived head first into an empty chair. This was executed fantastically and looked great each time they showed it on a replay (which was numerous times.) From there, they teased the doc calling off the fight, and Lucero stepped in and tried beating Hechicero up some more. Hechicero fought on and they cranked things up an extra notch with nearfalls and the like, including Lucero missing a dive on the outside and having the doc check on him. The finish was a really classic lucha style submission finish that had me pretty pumped. Really nice win.

I have never gotten a feel for the continuity between Portland falls. With lucha I know the end of one fall will overlap the other and with British wrestling I know the rhythm of the rounds system, but the delay between falls in Portland the sense that the falls don't really link has put me off practically all the stuff I've watched. I'm probably not concentrating hard enough, but I sometimes watch a Portland match and think about how I'd alter the length of the falls or change the position of the finishes. Anyway, here's something I wrote about Satanico/Cochisse five or six years ago:

That was just a joke.