ohtani's jacket

The rap with Kane sucked, but the ninja thing was all right due to them trying not to crack up and Regal calling Hornswoggle a grubby little swine. Danielson's line at the end was pretty good. But if I were a fan, I'd want him to do better shit than this.

She's certainly not in it for the money as a) she doesn't need any and she's writing cheques out of her own pocket, but distribution companies are most certainly in it for the money and if she wants to continue to be a successful producer and not just a financial backer then she's going to need to be smarter at the business side of things. She's quite an inexperienced producer and really the only difference between her and every other hopeful is that she's a film buff with a two billion dollar inheritance. I didn't know P.T.A had gone to Warner Bros. Evidently, he cares about money. Apparently, he's quite the carnie and might have pulled one over Ellison a bit, to make this wrestling related.

Yeah, she's going to fund him again as she's clearly setting her company up as one that funds directors like Anderson, as opposed to her brother who is commercially driven, but she got burnt on The Master and from all accounts has learnt from it. It doesn't sound like she has aspirations to be a money mark (or "dumb money" as they call it in Hollywood.) It seems like she wants to be legitimately successful. From what I can tell, Ellison is a mark for P.T.A, but The Master was expected to do better than it did and it wasn't entirely the case of Ellison being altruistic. Last Temptation ended up breaking even, but the studio went to great lengths to try to make money from it. They took out full page ads in newspapers to try to combat the negative attention the film drew and as I said they had the theatre release deal in place. Anyway, we better can the movie talk.

It does matter because it's not the norm and she's paying for it out of her own pocket which is not the way that production companies usually operate. Obviously, she bankrolled Anderson based on his artistic merits but there's no way an ordinary producer would have been able to scrape together that much money and a studio wouldn't have bitten on that type of film. She's a special case and even then they had to have been disappointed in the box office return, though I believe Zero Dark Thirty made back the money they lost on The Master. EDIT: Case in point, she was having trouble funding films until she got her inheritance from dad. And a quick scan of the movie rags reveals that The Master's box office performance was a bone of contention with Weinstein. Seems like she wants to be a player and will learn from her experience on The Master.

She's the daughter of one of the richest men in the world and wants to make art house films. There's one line of thinking that she invested too much money in Anderson's film and that indie films will suffer as a result. By and large, a studio wants its money back even on a project like Anderson's and will budget accordingly, so if Ellison is to continue working in Hollywood she'll need to start producing mainstream fare to cover the losses that her art films make.

It was a bit more complicated than that. Scorsese's agent was a long time colleague of the head of MCA. MCA had bought close to half of Cineplex Odeon Corporation, who MCA convinced to become equal equity partners in Last Temptation. That guaranteed that it would be shown in theatres, which was the big reason why Gulf+Western canned it in the first place. Despite backing the project, MCA slashed the budget and shooting schedule. Their real intention with Last Temptation was to lock Scorsese into a picture deal since Colour of Money had been successful at the box office.

I think he went to Calgary in '81 then returned to the UK in '82 and '83 the way that Dynamite Kid would sometimes reappear. These are the matches from after his move: Young David vs. Dave Finlay (Hemel Hempstead, 13/3/1982) Young David vs. Pete Roberts (Bolton, 17/4/1982) Young David vs. Bernie Wright (Leamington Spa, 19/2/1983)

Young David is a teenage Davey Boy Smith. We have footage of him from '78 through to '83. John Quinn had a fun run as a loud mouth Yank, though he was actually Canadian. He was unceremoniously jobbed to the fat man, but it was a good run all the same. He cut promos before his matches, which was rare in the WoS format, and was so over he turned Pat Roach face, and Roach had been somewhere near the top of the tree of rule breakers. He ended up jumping to All-Star with one of the belts, if I remember right. I ignored Daddy, Haystacks and the rest. I don't mind Kendo Nagasaki, but Daddy isn't something I seek out. He did have a really good technical match with John Elijah, though, which surprised me. If he'd worked like that more often he could have been as good as Otto Wanz.

Jerry, I've watched a few matches from Belgium, Germany and Austria. Overrated is worse than average in my view, though I suppose if I were to redistribute those names they would fall between decent and average. Saint and Rocco were capable of excellent matches against top opposition and occasionally they carried a lesser, inexperienced worker to something good, but I don't think they were excellent in and of themselves. The other guys are hurt by not living up to their reputations. Wright is just flat out average in nearly all his matches.

Now that I've watched a couple of hundred European matches, I thought I'd set about trying to form some sort of hierarchy of workers. To do this, I concentrated on workers whom I've seen at least five or so matches from. That means no Adrian Street, Masambula, Jackie Pallo, Dave Barrie, Peter Szakacs, Abe Ginsberg, Billy Robinson, and the like. I also ignored strictly comedy workers such as Catweazle or Billy Torontos, as well as the super heavyweights whom I have no interest in. I tend to avoid the blue-eyed, boy apprentices like the plague, so you won't find too many of them listed either. The time frame covers roughly 20 years from 1970-1990. All-Time Greats Jim Breaks, Mick McManus, Alan Sarjeant, Jon Cortez, Marty Jones, Steve Grey Great Workers Terry Rudge, Tibor Szacaks, Mike Marino Excellent Workers Bobby Barnes, Robby Baron, Franz van Buyten, Clive Myers, Steve Veidor, Sid Cooper, Alan Kilby, Pat Roach Strong Hands Johnny Czeslaw, John Elijah, Tiger Dalibar Singh, Pete Roberts, Keith Haward, Brian Maxine, Caswell Martin, Clay Thomson, Johnny Kwango, Steve Logan (Snr), Les Kellett, Chic Cullen, Romany Riley, Alan Wood, Pete Roberts, Axl Dieter, Bobby Ryan, Dave Finlay Decent Hands Tony St. Clair, Jim Moser, Peter La Paque, Colin Joynson, Ray Robinson, Johnny Kincaid, Vic Faulkner, John Kowalski, Johnny South, Ken Joyce, Tom Tyrone, Ivan Penzekoff, Ringo Rigby, Rocky Moran, Jeff Kaye, Johnny Kidd, Young David, Otto Wanz, John Quinn, Tony Walsh, Rene Lasartesse, Dynamite Kid, Steve Regal Average Kung Fu, Alan Dennison, Tony Charles, Mick McMichael, Bert Royal. Roy St. Clair, Court Baretlli, Lee Bronson, Tarzan Johnny Wilson, Honey Boy Zimba, Ray Steele, Bob Kirkwood, Kendo Nagasaki, Skull Murphy, Johnny England, Mike Jordan, Tally Ho Kaye, Kid Chocolate, Lenny Hurst, Dave Taylor Overrated Johnny Saint, Marc Rocco, Steve Wright, Zolton Boscik, Eddie Capelli, Wayne Bridges Annoying As Fuck John Naylor, Mal Sanders, Danny Collins, Chris Adams

Has there ever been a great Battle Royal? (Rumbles aside.)

Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi (09/04/91) This was better stuff from Hansen, although hitting your finisher to start the match is something other workers get criticised for all the time. Nevertheless, the narrative of Kobashi not having the physical strength or experience to beat Hansen was solid and the action was good, though not the "pro-wrestling at its purest" sap that All Japan fans try or tried to sell it as. If there's one thing I hate about going back and re-watching this All Japan stuff it's the outside brawling. It's almost as bad as the outside brawling in Joshi, though nowhere near as rife. The finish here was awesome with Kobashi ducking the lariat and Hansen changing arms. That was bad ass.

It seems to me that this is the type of thing that gets judged in hindsight.

Terry Rudge vs. Billy Samson (Hamburg 9/17/87) Another good Rudge match. This wasn't as hard hitting as some of his other German stuff, but it was a nice showcase for his heel work. The flick of the sweat and the "up yours" hand gesture were enough to get his opponent Billy Samson going. Samson came from a boxing background, but was firmly entrenched in the pro-style, which was a bit disappointing as I would have liked to have seen him trade blows with the GOAT.

I also watched Heenan/Warrior and the simple fact is it's just not that funny.

Perhaps there are differences between Japanese and American comedy? Comedy dominates a large chunk of Japanese prime time, but they don't have sitcoms. Quirky, off-beat dramas sometimes, but no real sitcoms. It's mostly variety shows hosted by famous Japanese comedians, with the roots in Manzai, which is an Abbott and Costello style double act as opposed to stand-up comedy in the States. I've been in the audience during comedy matches at Joshi and Osaka Pro shows and the comedy has a Manzai feel to it. There's also plenty of audience participation. The humour in these cases is often a parody of pro-wrestling, whereas comedy spots in the US (at least in the major promotions, not the indies) is often situation comedy such as a spot in a Midnight Express match. It's quite different from a match where Kellett or Hirota break the fourth wall almost in terms of talking to the ref, their opponent, the audience, making gags in the middle of holds, doing joke spots. Bobby Heenan bumping and stooging is not really in the same category as the comedy matches from Britain or Japan.

Could be the venue size or it could be that the British workers were actually funny.

British crowds used to laugh en masse at Kellet, Breaks, Catweazle, Pallo, Johnny Kwango, Billy Torontos, Vic Faulkner, Masambula, Johnny Czeslaw and a host of others.

Stan Hansen vs. Sgt. Slaughter (2/2/86) When you need to convince yourself that a dream match is just going to be a good, regular match and then you have to convince yourself that the regular match is good, you know you're looking at a disappointment. Stan Hansen vs. Leon White (3/13/86) It was weird seeing Vader with hair here. Man, was he green. I couldn't understand why Hansen gave him so much of the match as he looked so poor working from the top. I guess most people like Hansen's US work better than me, but it's really not that strong. Feels like a fairly sizable chink in his case for GOAT. I'm not a big fan of Flair's work in Japan, but it's clearly better than Hansen's work Stateside, if you want to make that comparison, though to be fair Flair got to work title matches for the most part.

Vader was awful at shoot style.

The Kinks song was Death of a Clown. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles did Tears of a Clown.

Steve Regal vs. Indio Guajaro (10/15/89) A few minutes worth of clips, mostly of both guys delivering body shots, but fun while it lasted. Steve Regal vs. Rene Lasartesse (10/18/89) This was over way too quickly, either by editing or by design, but I don't think it's much of a surprise that this was the first Rene Lasartesse match I've enjoyed in a while. Regal was already a talent here and his big uppercut based comeback against Lasartesse was the birth of cool. Wish we had this in full.

Marty Jones vs. Chic Cullen (1/24/84) Marty Jones vs. Chic Cullen (3/14/85) These guys didn't match up as well as I would've liked, which was a shame because Cullen was one of the few genuinely good workers who debut in the 80s. Some of the sequences they do are out of this world, particularly in the second bout which is the better of the two, but there wasn't the same intensity or friction as Jones' feuds with Rocco and Finlay and both matches have weak finishes. The highlight of the match-up is probably Jones' dropkick in the first match. Marty Jones has to be a contender for best dropkick in the business.

Jim Breaks vs. Young David (12/19/79) This is the third in a trilogy of Jim Breaks vs. Young David matches available, two of which aired on TWC and one that was taped from the original broadcast. This is the original broadcast match and completes the picture of Breaks vs. Young David being the best example of how good a worker Breaks was. There's obviously better grappling in his matches against Saint and Grey, but there's a real magic to the dynamic between Breaks the veteran, who is second only to McManus as the man they love to hate, and this scrawny kid who can't even shave yet. Add Alan Dennison to the kid's corner, all pumped up and urging the kid on, and you have another fantastic bout between the two. The matches which aired in full are more epic, but this fits nicely between the two and has an absolutely wonderful finish, as for a brief moment Young David wins the belt and gets a tremendous ovation and post-match celebration. Moments like that were pretty rare in World of Sport, which made it all the more special. Unfortunately, Breaks disputed the pinfall and the belt was held-up, which led to a Breaks vs. Dennison program I believe, but it doesn't happen on tape so you can just enjoy one of the feel good moments of the era instead.

I think we've all made our point now, but the thread made it pretty implicit that not everybody thinks it's great.