ohtani's jacket

Marty Jones vs. Pete Roberts (6/27/79) This was another example of a good Pete Roberts match. It was the final of a tournament for some "Dale Martin Trophy" that they added to the already stacked Wembley Arena card and like everyone else on the bill (save Daddy) they went all out to have a good match. The work wasn't as outstanding as Rudge vs. Roberts, but it had the same general level of excitement. Having such a hot crowd helped and the pop for the finish was one of the biggest I've heard in British wrestling. Like Rudge against Kilby, Marty played the aggressor, which is something they did quite a bit of in the halls apparently when they had face vs. face match-ups. Easily the best of the three or more Roberts/Jones matches I've seen from what was, surprisingly, not that strong a match-up.

The begging off was only a ploy in the early going. Deeper into a match, he'd oftentimes beg off for real.

All good points. I guess it's the wearing down the opponent strategy that doesn't really gel with me.

Mick McManus vs. Tony St. Clair (2/4/76) These guys fought quite a few times on TV and had great chemistry together. I've said it time and time again, but it never ceases to amaze me how you had McManus in his early 50s here doing the same thing he'd done on TV year after year, match after match, and still getting fantastic heat for it. This match was built around two McManus staples, the cauliflower ears getting roughed up and McManus' own towel being used against him by an angry babyface, but I dug every second of it despite having seen it all before. There's no doubt based on my recent viewings that McManus was a much better performer than Pallo, though the footage of Pallo is extremely limited and may not give an accurate picture. This wasn't as good as I remember their '74 match being, but TWC showed the cameras still rolling on an amusing post-match that showed what a complete package McManus was and it was fun watching these two lock up again. On an unrelated note, Kent Walton said St. Clair was heading off to South Africa and that we wouldn't see him on the small screen for possibly a year and I'll be damned but he really was away from TV for a year. No bullshittin' from Kent.

Mick McManus vs. Clive Myers (4/7/81) Wildly disappointing. Myers' Iron Fist gimmick was stupid and completely shackled his wrestling ability. Not that there was much wrestling in this. Mick McManus was one of the great figures of British wrestling but he was washed up by the time the 80s came round, and sadly I can't see any of his matches making the 80s set. The only interesting thing about this was the finish which saw Myers take a huge over the top rope bump to the third row. Never seen that before in WoS. Mick McManus vs. Jeff Kaye (1/10/78) This was a good example of the huge difference between 70s McManus and 80s McManus even as late in the piece as '78. Really niggly, entertaining match from two veterans of the ring. Not listing it as it's McManus schtick and I've seen it all before, but Kaye made for a really good McManus opponent and the forearm smashes in this were beautiful. Mick McManus and Steve Logan vs. Iron Fist and Black Belt Chris Adams (7/26/78) McManus and Logan looked like such a pair of crooks. Whoever stuck those two together was a bright spark. Their opponents were The Martial Arts Fighters... Yep. Lots of shitty karate in this one. Two from the master: Mick McManus vs. Steve Best (7/31/75) Mick McManus vs. Mal Sanders (10/11/78) The Best match is awesome. It's all of McManus' favourite spots rolled into one, but the crowd is heated and Best makes for a great McManus opponent. I really wanted to list this but it was a bit too short. Hell of an entertaining match, though. Mal Sanders is a guy I don't care for along the lines of John Naylor. Not a match I was interested in. Mick McManus vs. Catweazle (2/21/77) Only Mick McManus could carry Catweazle to something this good. For those of you who don't know, Catweazle was a worker who basically took his gimmick from a British children's show about an 11th century wizard who accidentally traveled through time to the 20th century. Really gimmicky stuff, but McManus was excellent at working with these type of wrestlers. I was sorely tempted to list this because of how exciting it was, but it needed at least another round and I suspect that McManus had this match with Catweazle often. Steve Best & Johnny Saint vs. Steve Logan & Mick McManus (4/18/74) I've said my bit on WoS tag matches many times before, but I will say that the heel team of McManus and Logan brought some semblance of structure to their matches. It's nothing special compared to their tag work, but for some reason Joint booked tag matches to be up tempo affairs with little or no FIP, possibly to distinguish them as something unique. Incidently, I'd forgotten all about Saint's 70s hair. Wild.

Bob Anthony vs. Mick McManus (4/21/80) Anthony was the biggest scrub I've seen in British wrestling. This was the men playing with the boys. Waste of an opportunity to see 1980 Mick McManus. Johnny Saint vs. Mick McManus (11/30/76) Finally, something from the 70s. This was much shorter than their Gravesend bout from '75, but the body of the match was pretty terrific. Saint was a bit gawky in the mid-70s and didn't really come into his own until '79/80, but McManus looked great, and I thought for sure I'd list this. That is until the finish. Without a doubt, this was the strangest booking I've seen in WoS. Stranger than any Kendo Nagasaki match or any other kind of gimmick. The referee turned his back to issue McManus a public warning and Saint dropped to the canvas to fake a punch. The ref saw Saint laid out and disqualified McManus. Saint kept pointing to his head while the DQ was announced, and even Walton couldn't explain why Saint had pulled a heel trick. According to him, Saint wasn't happy with a DQ win. WTF? He dropped to the canvas. McManus got on the mic and rightly pointed out his case, and Saint claimed if he couldn't beat McManus cleanly he would never wrestle on British television again, which is like one of those lucha hair or mask challenges that never eventuate. At least we got to see Walton smoking after the bout. Mick McManus vs. Tony St. Clair (3/14/74) T his was an excellent performance from McManus. Pretty much a masterclass. In fact, I think it may be the best Mick McManus performance I've seen. Tony St. Clair had a huge height and weight advantage which kind of translated to some awkward looking lock-ups in terms of him having to bend over, but to St. Clair's credit he was full of fire here and sold well. The match was basically about McManus' cheating and St. Clair's retaliation (like all McManus matches), but St. Clair was pretty damn good at his part. Max Ward was on his case the entire match and there was awesome part where Walton started saying "Is he gone? I think he might be gone" in regards to whether it was a DQ or public warning. The last couple of falls were really good since St. Clair was battling for an equalising fall via submission. Not only was this passable, but I'm actually going to list this since it was a genuinely exciting match and a great Mick McManus bout. St. Clair is 4/4 in passable bouts so far, and while I wouldn't call him a good worker, it seems like his opponents liked the heat they got against him because everyone stepped up their game when they faced Tony St. Clair. Kung Fu vs. Mick McManus (4/21/76) This was a great piece of booking. Kung Fu hadn't lost on television since his debut against Myers in October '74, and had vowed that the first person to beat him would take his mask. McManus rarely lost on TV himself, so this made for some great television. McManus was hell bent on out wrestling Kung Fu and had his working shoes on here. His selling was awesome in this match. I swear he took Kung Fu's kicks better than any rudo I've seen in Mexico or the UK. Watch how he tries to block the kicks. McManus was pretty much the Satanico or Fujiwara of British wrestling. Just a sharp match in general. McManus was brilliant at the end. Mick McManus vs. Billy Torontos (7/29/77) Billy Torontos is one of the strangest workers I've ever seen. He basically acted spastic the entire time, throwing his hands about and screaming. You need to see it to understand what I mean, but trust me it's really fucking odd. McManus did his usual schtick here and it was all pretty good. Torontos jobbed in straight falls, but his selling was decent once he calmed down. Mick McManus vs. Chris Adams (11/20/78) Mick McManus was such a great performer. To do the same thing in every match for as many years as he did and still be ridiculously awesome every time out is just as impressive as wrestlers who get praised for taking a unique approach to every match. This wasn't as good as other McManus matches on largely because Chris Adams was such a shit worker (at this point of his career anyway) but medicore McManus is still Mick McManus.

Thought I'd start this off with all the McManus I've watched. Some of these are just short notes: Mick McManus vs. Jackie Turpin (1/9/80) Fun performance from the veteran rudo. Jackie Turpin was a boxer turned wrestler and a decent foil for McManus. The finish was well booked. Seemed like the ref was going to stop the match, but Turpin got an equaliser and McManus was DQ'ed. Good stuff. Johnny Saint vs. Mick McManus (11/20/75) Classy match, especially after the equalising fall. Great performance from McManus, considering he was already 50 here and making overtures about retiring. It was a similar sort of bout to Saint's matches against Breaks in that Johnny was pissed at the heeling and received a number of public and private warnings, which kinda amuses me since Kent always talks about how he's never seen Johnny Saint get a public warning. Even when he's being aggressive, Saint kind of lacks charisma, but McManus is a superb foil and all of Saint's holds rock, especially the forearms against McManus' ears. How's this for some trivia -- this match is from the same venue as Capelli/Sargeant (Gravesend) and sure enough the same pensioner is in her front row seat. But get this -- it's also from the same card as the most famous of the Grey/Myers bouts. The one that got us all hooked on WoS in the first place. That makes it a hell of a card if you ask me. Mick McManus vs. Alan Sarjeant (11/20/74) This was great shit. A slightly better finish and it would've been my favourite McManus match to date. There was some awesome grappling in this, but what I really loved was how McManus was lumpy like Tenryu and Sarjeant had short legs and no torso like Black Terry. Mick McManus vs. Robbie Baron (12/29/76) Hugely entertaining McManus match. If it wasn't for the cop out finish, I would've listed this. Definitely on my personal list of great McManus matches. Mick McManus & Steve Logan vs The Barons - Jeff Kaye & Ian Gilmour (5/3/73) British tag wrestling was primitive compared to the Southern style, but the matches always got good heat, presumably because they only ever ran them as a special attraction. I suppose you could call it the opposite of lucha. Occasionally, they ran six man tags, but whichever format, they were more often than not heel/face affairs that tended to get the crowd worked up. I've yet to see a great British tag match, but by and large the matches are fun. McManus and Logan were a solid rudo team, but I don't know if you can add "tag wrestler" to McManus' HOF resume since there wasn't a whole lot of structure to what they did in these matches.

Jim Breaks vs. Kid Chocolate (9/26/78) Match is joined with a Breaks fall being overturned and a public warning being issued instead. Quite a frenetic bout for the time that it lasts as Johnny Saint is at ringside in a sling and Breaks goes for the kill while taunting Saint the entire time. Kid Chocolate has to play JTTS, but it's a neat bit of TV with the Digbeth crowd getting on Breaks' case with "easy" chants and Saint entering the ring at the end to slap Breaks around with his good arm, which was probably the coolest thing Saint has ever done. This was fun while it lasted.

William Regal vs. Kassius Ohno, NXT 3/21/13 This was a masterful selling performance from Regal and a pretty brutal match. I was actually a little uncomfortable with how violent it was, largely because so much of Ohno's offence was based on running kicks to Regal's head and somehow Regal made his face turn unnaturally purple, but for a studio TV match in a developmental territory you couldn't ask for much more from this. Regal fans will eat it up.

Maybe it's a compliment that Flair is synonymous with something that 90% of all heels do. Personally, my biggest problem with Flair is his offence. I wouldn't exactly call him a weak offensive worker, but it always felt like his offence was missing something to me.

Terry Rudge vs. Pete Roberts (3/21/83) I know there are people who think "Super Destroyer" Pete Roberts is one of the most boring workers to ever grace a ring, but with the right kind of opponent Roberts could have stellar matches. This was an excellent twenty minute draw full of fantastic, hard-hitting action. Since Joint Promotions aired on a real sports programme, they tended to mimic other sports by having more draws than is normal for a wrestling promotion. Along with their injury finishes, they did this to varying degrees of satisfaction, but this was just about the best draw I've seen in terms of the finishing stretch. I often find that most workers' execution of a time limit draw leaves a lot to be desired, but this was the perfect combination of both guys going at it hammer and tongs to get the winning fall and fatigue and the clock playing their part. I got over Walton's commentary a long time ago and sometimes ignore it these days, but he was on point here and did a wonderful job of calling the action, which made an exciting match seem like a cracker. He was particularly good at pointing out that because it was a twenty minute match without falls that the only breaks the workers would get was between falls instead of the usual intervals between rounds, and both guys wrestled so well that the old cliche about neither man deserving to lose never rung truer. Terry Rudge vs. Pat Roach (6/28/84, JIP R5) Awesome match-up, but it was joined at the end of the 5th round with Rudge already up a fall. His attacks on Roach's arm were God-like in their inventiveness and execution, and Roach, who had a good seven inches on Rudge, was like a bear with a sore head dealing with the smaller man, but not enough of this aired to form any real opinion about it.

You are secretly enjoying this, aren't you?

Men At Work had two hit albums.

I've never gotten the sense watching Flair that his opponent was the better wrestler or that Flair didn't have a fighting chance. I also recall Jumbo playing the bitch any time he'd do those whiny facial expressions of his.

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Stan Hansen (4/20/86) I watched this twice to see how it could possibly be described as stiff or a war, and to try to ignore the commentary, but this was so lacklustre and pedestrian that the ref bump and DQ finish were hardly even a letdown. I don't have the AWA set, so I don't know how good this is contextually, but this wasn't anywhere near as exciting as the wild and sprawling, Terry Funk influenced Puerto Rico brawls against Colon and Bockwinkel looked plain old. I thought this was going to be hard hitting like something like Rudge/Tyrone, but the holds were pretty pointless and the mid-match, pre-ref bump stuff seemed affected by the fact they were building to a DQ.

Terry Rudge vs. Alan Kilby (6/18/81) This was everything I could have hoped for from Rudge & Kilby and more. They were given the six rounds on the undercard of the Big Daddy/Giant Haystacks Wembley Arena show and basically went for as much heat as they could possibly get. Kilby was one of the most likeable guys on the circuit, not only because he was deaf, but because he was an excellent and charismatic worker with tremendous babyface presence. It's an old point of mine, but it's extremely difficult to play a likeable babyface in wrestling and Kilby was second only to Steve Grey in the UK and possibly better than him. Since Kilby was so popular, Rudge was in full-on rudo mode here, and spent a large portion of the match sparring with Kilby in a manner befitting the best Fujiwara shoot style bouts. He worked a mix of inside shots and legal strikes, both of which pissed Kilby off, and they teased everything from a pull-apart brawl to Rudge being thrown out. In fact, if there was ever a bout that should've been thrown out, this made a good case for it. Rudge kept coming out of his corner before the bell despite having two public warnings to his name and the crowd let the ref have it. The finish was kind of obvious and probably could have been executed better, but it got a strong pop from the crowd and Rudge posed gratuitously on the outside, including on one of the chairs near Walton, which amused me as I'd never seen Rudge do any pantomime before. Flash pin aside, a really good bout, probably in the top six Rudge bouts I've seen. Delivered big time. Terry Rudge vs. Gil Singh (6/15/82) This was the usual high quality albeit heatless match between the two. Singh was much bigger than I remembered and the size difference between the two was far greater than I could recall. There was some good grappling, but Singh was a bit too dominant for my liking, especially in the fifth round where he basically rode Rudge the entire round. Definitely one for the Rudge purists, though, as he added plenty of sweet touches.

I wonder if the Lex character ever got confused by the number of times he turned. Y'know, maybe take stock of his life.

Childs said he was almost never less than good. I don't think that's really true.

I like Stan Hansen as much as the next guy, but he had more than his share of average matches. I can't remember ever seeing a good Hansen/Brody tag.

I was thinking more along the lines of his wrestler vs. martial artists fights v. Gerard Gordeau, Chris Dolman and Willie Wilhelm, though Don Nielsen was a popular Muay Thai fighter in Japan at the time. I can't find the Vrij match online so I don't know about the theatrics, but it's worth noting that the first RINGS card didn't feature a lot of native talent: Koichiro Kimura vs. Hideki Hosaka Peter Smit vs. Herman Renting Willie Peeters vs. Marcel Haarmans Chris Dolman vs. Bill Kazmier Akira Maeda vs. Dick Leon-Vrij Aside from an exhibition against Kimura on an all-kicking boxing card, Maeda didn't face a native until the 12/16/94 card. Vrij was always a bit of a douche, but I can't remember him being built up as a foreign heel type. Also, the comparable UWF-i match was Takada vs. Burton, not Tamura/Kakihara. Vrij was at least a legit kickboxer. Burton was an ex-WWF jobber, Global worker.

I didn't get the shoot style connection, either. It just seemed like a regular match between the two. It probably would have been more interesting if it had been a sub-10 minute shoot style bout as the stand-up portions was the only real action prior to the finish.

I'd just like to respectfully point out that Ta-Gar was lord of one volcano.

Wrestlemania III was supposed to have aired live on the original Sky channel w/ I and II broadcast in the lead-up. Apparently, it showed Superstars, Wrestling Challenge and Saturday Night's Main Event.

Screensport showed NWA, AWA, Stampede, ICW, GWA, South West Championship Wrestling and WCCW. The Lifestyle channel showed a bunch of wrestling too -- Glow, PoWW, Global (Florida), and Pro Wrestling This Week.

Maeda had a number of worked shoots against foreigners in both New Japan and UWF so I don't think it's much of a surprise.