ohtani's jacket

Dibiase worked face in the UWF towns while they were debuting the Million Dollar Man vignettes. I think he worked one match in Houston against One Man Gang before the first vignette. They later gave a kayfabe reason in Texas for his heel turn saying that he'd inherited a bunch of money from a dead relative.

Dave Finlay vs. Clive Myers (6/13/84) This was every bit as bad as I feared. I think it was made worse for me by the fact that Myers/Grey was the gateway drug for me for British Wrestling and in that match you had Myers as the West Indian guy with all these slick moves and awesome mat tricks and then by the end of the 70s he's cashing in on Bruce Lee's popularity and doing all this martial arts, kung fu fighter bullshit. And then you have Finlay getting more and more heat with Princess Paula while all the while wrestling less and less. This was a 15 round title match and joined about half way through with no score, and not much action either. The only matwork on show here was a wrestler's bridge and the odd submission attempt. It was pathetic when you consider pre-Iron Fist Clive Myers and the funky ass shit he did on the mat. But it as over and the crowd was into it, so much so that I actually wondered if it was really a type of new workrate approach to British wrestling where instead of the "boring" matwork you got more all-action, Mark Rocco style wrestling, not that I find there to be a lot of action in Finlay's matches while Paula had her hooks in him. There's a chance (a good one probably) that people would like this more than me since the crowd were into it and some people may love Finlay regardless of which era of his work it is, but the lame finish where Myers came off the top rope one too many times confirmed for me how far this was away from the great British wrestling I love. And this was from 1984, too, which is way too early to start sucking.

I really liked both of those Twin Towers/Demolition matches. At least I think I did.

Yeah, check out the 1993 one. Both Inoues had tremendous years in '93.

Hadn't watched this in donkey's years. It really does feel like the perfect middle match between the 3/96 match and a match that never happened, although I must say I liked the clipped version of one of their 1998 matches I saw. The matwork wasn't great here, but New Japan matwork never really is, and I thought Ohtani's acting as a bit iffy in the beginning, but once it got into the section of the match where they start unloading their offense on each other I thought it was a cracking match. Liger reminds me of El Hijo del Santo a lot in that everything he does is excellent but incredibly predictable and it's difficult to really care about him all that much, but Ohtani wasn't ready to step up here and they told that story really well. Ohtani had toned down on the facials here, but I wonder if he had it in him to take this feud to the next level where it was believable that he'd matured enough to beat Liger. I wish the economics of the industry had stayed stable and we could have seen it play out properly.

I think the Crush Girls were a phenomenal success in terms of wrestling but not pop culture. A lot of people like Meltzer and the folks who write online articles or information take facts about the Crush Girls and compare them what they know, i.e. American wrestling and the extend to which its stars have ever been mainstream, but when it comes to Japan they don't have a clue where wrestling fits into the rest of Japanese culture. And people assume things are true. That Wikipedia article on Chigusa Nagayo states that either she or the Crush Girls had several top 10 hits. I've scoured as much Oricon charts details as I can find and there is no evidence to date that any of their songs were in the top 10. They certainly weren't in the 100 best selling singles of any year during the Crush Girls craze. I suppose they may have spent a week or two in the top 10, but I can't find any evidence that their singles ever rose that high. If you want to look at what a pop star could do at the same time as the Crush Girls, Seiko Matsuda, the Queen of the Idols, had something like 24 consecutive number one hits between 1980 and 1988. And the ratings seem big by American standards, but something like Touch, for example, the wonderful baseball anime, consistently drew 30%+ ratings during its peak. The difference between something like Touch and Joshi Puroresu is that Touch had appeal for the whole family whereas the Crush Girls success was essentially a phenomenon among children not unlike the trends we grew up with (Transformers, Cabbage Patch Kids, TMNT, etc.) There is a morning television serial in Japan called Asadora where airs from 8:00-8:15 a.m. The most popular serial of all-time earnt on average a 52.6% rating with a 62/9% rating for its most popular episode, and remember that's at 8 o'clock in the morning and only for fifteen minutes. Considering how big the idol industry is in Japan, I don't think the Crush Girls made a terribly huge number of VHS tapes, albums, etc. They also weren't on the celebrity TV circuit as much as you'd think and after she retired Chigusa couldn't land a TV gig. To me overstating the spread or reach of the Crush Girls would be a bit like a Japanese fan claiming that Hogan or Flair were as popular as the most iconic Americans of the 80s.

There was no juniors division to dominate.

For what it's worth, I tend to think the Crush Girls cultural phenomenon is overstated. The Crush Girls were extremely popular in terms of female athletes but their popularity didn't compare to mainstream actresses, singers and idols of the day. In all honesty, they would probably rank below the more significant television prime time animes and popular mangas of the day which had wider audiences. They certainly weren't on the level of pop stars. Their success was good enough to get AJW a good time slot on Saturdays and they pushed a lot of merchandise and sold a lot of tickets but they weren't these huge crossover mainstream stars that they're sometimes portrayed as.

New Japan drew 20%+ ratings on Friday nights during the Tiger Mask craze.

Japan has cable television, but the overall penetration of pay TV is small. All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's numbers were high but it was quite common for popular shows to do those sort of numbers and even higher.

Yeah, that period from 1986 until 1996 when he shows up in WCW is baffling.

Apparently, Finlay doesn't have his own topic yet. I'm going to concentrate on his European footage, but add whatever you like people. Dave Finlay vs. Chic Cullen (12/7/83) This aired on December 31st and was the last WoS match shown in 1983. That was neat of the promoters to let Finlay see out the year given how busy he'd been in 1983, appearing 11 times on television on 10 different shows. Such a large number of television appearances ought to give you an indication of how successful Finlay was early in his career. He really was fantastic from 1981-83. Then, somewhere along the way, he met Paula. This was right at the beginning of their relationship. Finlay was already donning his signature white and green tights, but his hair as still short and Paula hadn't become overbearing yet. I've been kind of down on Cullen lately, but after a tepid beginning to this match where Finlay seemed like another worker that Cullen didn't match up with particularly well, the match suddenly got really good as Cullen pulled finger and looked like the worker that was so good against Rocky Moran and other heels. You can always tell when Walton was legitimately excited and this was one of this occasions. He actually described Cullen as not being in the match to cover for the slowness of the early action and then put over Cullen's flurry of action big time. It was a good read of the match, I thought. Would have liked to have seen the whole thing to get a better feel for the flow, but this was the Finlay that I like. I have some footage of his rivalry with Clive Myers coming up and that will be interesting as I hate Iron Fist era Clive Myers and it's right in the middle of the Princess Paula phase. I'm intrigued by what they'll deliver and how I'll react.

Dave Finlay vs. Alan Kilby (10/11/82) This was one of Kilby's best feuds. The dynamic was almost perfect. It as never talked about on air, but you always got the feeling that Kilby had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, as though he felt he needed to work harder than everyone else to compensate for his disability. I think most of the fans watching in the halls and at home probably felt that too if only subconsciously. If true then there as no better opponent for Kilby than Finlay. You only had to take one look at Finlay and it became clear why every other wrestler wanted to wipe the shit eating grin from off his face. He was young, brash and full of himself and took real pleasure in the being an asshole. He didn't openly mock Kilby for his disability, but he made Kilby feel inferior in other ways and the subtext was clearly there. What's more, the Irishman had taken Kilby's British Heavy-Middleweight title from him, which was a real blow to Kilby's pride. Of the four Kilby/Finlay matches I've seen, I would probably place this as number two. It was joined in progress about a third of the way into the bout and while it started slow it got really good towards the end. Finlay had this spot he'd do in these early matches of his where he'd point at his opponent and give them a fair old warning about what to expect if they crossed some sort of imaginary line and because he was such an asshole his opponents wouldn't take to it too kindly. Here Kilby was so exasperated he used a mixture of his voice and sign language to complain bitterly to the ref, or as Walton so cringe worthily called it, "the deaf and dumb language." Kilby was so good at getting fired up. I'd put him in the top handful of babyfaces who could get fired up without seeming like complete dicks. It really was a beautiful dynamic between these two. The match went to a draw, but Walton did a really good job of laying out the stakes in the final rounds, what it would mean for Kilby to win and how the promoters would react to a Finlay win, that the final round felt like a title match and not a non-title bout. I wish there was more of this feud on tape.

You ought to be commended for sitting through those Powers of Pain/Demolition matches. Even as a kid I realized those matches were the drizzling shits.

Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. John Elijah (10/2/85) Tiger Dalibar Singh vs. Barry Douglas (4/26/84) Wrestling on ITV got really lame towards the end. I hate the cheesy voice over that introduces the wrestling and the whole Saturday lunch time wrestling schtick with the corny as shit Brian Crabtree MC'ing. Gil Singh could sure half-ass it when he wanted to, especially in one fall matches. I've seen no evidence so far that Barry Douglas was the Southern Terry Rudge, though he was well past his prime here and jobbed in about as short a time as WoS matches went. John Elijah vs. Tom Tyrone (7/15/86) John Elijah vs. Tom Tyrone (5/11/82) A guy whose stock is definitely rising for me is Tom Tyrone. John Elijah was basically reduced to comedy schtick at this point, but remained a decent worker, and Tyrone had the goods in what was unfortunately the wrong era. The '86 match was particularly impressive as it was an entertaining, spirited draw in a really shitty time period for British wrestling. It wasn't good enough to make an 80s set, but it was undoubtedly one of the highlights of that year. Dave Finlay vs. Ringo Rigby (2/24/83) Ringo Rigby was the guy who went to North America with Chris Adams and had significantly less success. It shouldn't be much of a surprise then that he was by far the better of the two when they worked the British halls and was one of the more likeable blue eyes around. This was the final few rounds of a match for the vacant British Light-Heavyweight title. It was a rematch from a match the week before that ended in double count out. Dale Martin loved booking rematches for matches that were supposed to decide vacant titles. Early Dave Finlay is awesome. I don't think he was ever this awesome again until his WWE run. But the match is only really notable for Marty Jones cutting a promo at the end. He was supposed to hand his vacant British Light Heavyweight title to the "deserving" winner and refused to hand it to Finlay. Finlay told Jones that winning the British title was only the beginning and that he was coming after Jones' World title and I guess this kick started their feud. The amusing thing about all this was that Jones was wearing glasses because of his lazy eye and they were really thick lenses that made his eyes look huge (as I'm sure you can imagine) and it was so odd to see this world class athlete looking like my old woodwork teacher. Can you imagine Vince letting a guy cut a promo with glasses like that? Ringo Rigby vs. Banger Walsh (12/7/81) Walsh wasn't have the worker that the truly great heels were, but I like his schtick and the general idea that such a regular looking bloke can be a heat drawing prick in the ring. It was one of those WoS matches that is basically about the heel cheating, the face retaliating and the referee intervening, but it entertained the punters and yours truly.

I never liked street fights in Joshi. I can see the appeal of this, but those chain spots were in incredibly bad taste I thought. The ending was stupid. This is supposed to be wrestling not attempted homicide. I really hated how so much garbage wrestling seeped into Joshi around this time, which made the already bloated main events even more detestable. I've got no problem with matches like Kandori/Devil, Hokuto/Kandori, Bull/Kandori or Kudo/Toyoda, but those were concentrated a lot more in the ring and not a type of violence I find abhorrent.

I would have to watch the G-1 match again, but from memory Sumo Hall is a much better atmosphere for these guys' style of match than the Dome. I don't have a good explanation for why I thought the narrative was better in '96 other than to say that if that was Choshu's last hurrah then I think Hashimoto should have stepped up more in this match. I guess what was missing was the turning point that Kevin alluded to where you get the sense that Hashimoto is going to put him away and there's nothing Choshu can do to stop him. Or perhaps Choshu could have had a bit more intensity at the beginning. I don't want to say that Hashimoto was taking it easy on him, but maybe Choshu could have rocked Hashimoto a bit more in terms of possibly winning. I'm really only talking about small tweaks in the narrative as I get what they were trying to do, I just think Choshu was a bit long in the tooth for them to be working like such equals regardless of respect or Choshu winning the G-1 Climax even. But the end result was the same with Hashimoto getting the win going forward.

Man, I haven't watched a Yagi match in years. She really was a fab worker. No doubt you'll enjoy the Yoshida matches when you get to them. This was a decent match. I suspect it would have meant more to me back in my Joshi days due to the rarity of a Yagi singles match. With JWP only having monthly TV and a commercial tape every now and again, there really weren't that many opportunities to see good Yagi matches. She got quite a few singles matches in '96 as she had that challenge against workers from other companies and that strong Ozaki singles match from TV, but the marriage retirement nipped that in the bud. The selling was typical Joshi, selling the accumulated damage from all of the action rather than focusing on any particular move. I don't think Kuzumi had an off night, this was simply where she was at this stage of her development. She wasn't the most convincing champion granted, but I don't think the finish was meant to be a fluke as she was the title holder, I think it was just a poor choice for the finish, plus she did the "was it a three count?" selling which made it seem like an upset. BTW, not to quibble or anything but it's "Hiromi" Yagi.

It's tough for me living in Japan to consider Riki Choshu generic. I get your point about his look overall, but the whole reason Choshu got over in Japan initially was because he was far from generic image wise. Match was good, but I didn't like it as much as their '96 G-1 Climax and not as much as everyone else in this thread. Personally, I thought the layout was a bit too basic and while I could understand all of the match decisions they made, I didn't like the constant mirroring of spots and thought Hashimoto gave away too much control of the match to Choshu. Hashimoto at this point of his career could have destroyed Choshu if he'd really wanted to. I realise that's not the narrative they wanted to tell, but it was still a distraction for me. Would rather the focus had been on the old war dog trying to get one more victory than Hashimoto working so much of the match on the back foot. Champion working from a disadvantageous situation only really works for me when it's Misawa because he was such a great seller and so good at working that sort of narrative. As much as I love Hashimoto, he was more of a visceral worker and great at flurries, but we didn't really get the big flurry here, IMO. Still, this was a good match and obviously plenty of others appreciate it for what it is.

Slightly off on the timeline as she wrestled a few more months after the Fukuoka match before she took time off. When she came back from that she was still having occasional high end matches though. Her getting knocked out at the AJW 30th Anniversary show in 98 was when the bottom really fell out. She was gone a good 3-4 months from that and never really regained form. Not that she hasn't had good to great matches since, just nothing like she did earlier on and at a lot less frequent basis. She took time off before and after the Fukuoka match. The whole point of the Fukuoka match was to get the belt off her because they weren't sure what was wrong with her exactly and there was a strong possibility that she would have to retire. Her illness affected her stamina badly as well as her body weight. Soup, I'm fairly certain MJH is referring to AJW's bankruptcy, the exodus of workers, Plum's death, Candy and Yagi's retirements, JWP and the FMW women's division collapses, etc. It was an awful year for Joshi puroresu though the actual work was quite good.

Kansai began having a collagen disorder around this time. Her decline was illness related and not due to any injury. She took time off for treatment after the 4/97 Fukuoka match. Yagi rose to prominence per se in 1996, though her push started in '95 from memory. Kuzumi became a much better worker later on, though not in a style that puts much stock in selling.

I'd say that if you've only seen Pete Roberts in Japan then you haven't really seen Pete Roberts. The same is true of most British workers in Japan. The stuff I've seen from Roberts in Japan he's tried to work the local style and been pretty average at it. The big problem with Roberts was that he had no personality and when he's out of his element it makes his matches even worse. I'm not a huge fan but against guys who could work like Rudge or Roach or Jones he was oftentimes quite sensational and when your work is good then that's a type of charisma in itself. The two things I'd say are missing most from his Japan work are the matwork and the moments of sheer athleticism like in one of the Singh matches where he's able to counter a body slam by springboarding off the mat with one hand. For what it's worth, I think Tony St. Clair is a guy who really suffers from having shitty Japan matches.

Ozaki's acting was phenomenal around this time. The whole pledging angle where she keeps rejecting Amano was great TV. The birth of OZ Academy and the rise of GAEA were maybe things that weren't captured that much on earlier yearbooks, but it looks like there's a fair bit of it on this one. I think it helps to keep it in the perspective of weekly TV rather than hoping for great matches because it was mostly fun post-boom weekly TV. Also, Ozaki falls off a cliff quality wise after '97. Her '99 GAEA stuff is better than her 21st century work but I'm not sure she was ever the same after Plum died.

Just a note about the two matches: Espectrito/Sagrada was taped at the CA Sports Arena in Los Angeles, not Triplemania, and drew nearly 14,000. This match was an Arena Coliseo taping with a capacity of about 5,000 so I'm not surprised that the AAA match felt bigger, match styles notwithstanding.

Harley Race vs. Rick Martel, PNW 1/12/80 I haven't got much love for Portland wrestling, it's TV, Don Owen's introductions, Frank Bonnema's commentary or Rick Martel, so let me get those biases out of the way. I don't really like their two out of three falls format, either. I may grow to like these things in the future, so I don't mean to pass any indictment on Portland wrestling. This match was good when they did the stand-up parts that led to the finishes and boring as shit when they were on the mat. I don't want to see Harley Race mat wrestle. I don't think he's a good mat wrestler, I don't think he's an interesting mat worker and I don't think he's good at selling on the mat. Harley is good at delivering headbutts and cool offence. I wanna see him work like he worked in Texas. And I especially don't want to see Rick Martel working from the top. Harley really ought to have bucked the touring champ formula and controlled the entire match like the heavyweight champ should. I don't really understand giving the young babyface the control segments when the crowd would love it so much more if he got on a roll instead of slowing the match the fuck down. At least the final two falls were short.