ohtani's jacket

Bret's storytelling or psychology, whatever you want to call it, is really overrated. Whoever said he worked underneath as the underdog all the time was right on the money.

The first wave of wrestling smarkdom was in 2000? You're asking for trouble with that one. I don't know that there were that many people touting Bret as the GOAT ten years ago. What I would say is that back in the day there were a lot of Bret vs. Shawn debates and nowdays I'm not sure it's that relevant a debate outside of nostalgia. One thing that kind of hurt Bret is how quickly and effortlessly the WWF moved on from him. Blink and suddenly Austin, Rock and Foley are carrying the company. There's probably a lot of people who started watching in that period that only know the Hitman retrospectively and the Bret era probably doesn't have the same resonance to it if you didn't live through it. The most I ever popped for wrestling (since I usually knew the results ahead of time) was either Bret winning the title at Survivor Series '95 after the monstrosity that had been 1995 or Rey beating Eddie at Halloween Havoc '97 after I'd fallen for the Bischoff leak that Rey would lose. Maybe I'm wrong, but you kind of had to be in the moment. You can kind of get a feel for it by how much people love and remember '97 despite the amount of absolute shit the WWF put out that year. The WWE doesn't glorify the Next Generation era the way it does the Attitude era and the steriod trial era is presented as Vince beating the rap, so that really cuts into a lot of Bret's prime. Plus we're 16 years removed from the end of his prime. Of course he's going to lose his allure a little, but I don't know if his reputation has really taken a hit. People say he's boring -- he is boring if you're not in sync with what he does. People who love how he sells and the logic they claim he brings to his matches will always dig Bret, but I'm not sure there are too many people who think he's a bad worker. Just dull. There's not a lot of avenues left to explore with Bret, though Matt D sure is tempting me to watch some matches. I can't really see a big re-evaluation of Bret at any time, though. Bret Hart is so overwhelming in his Bret Hart-ness that you can't really find matches where he works a different way or that give a different take on his character. Jerome's re-evaluation of his WCW work or maybe the Hart Foundation coming back into style is probably the only places we can go with Bret unless people start suddenly proclaiming him the GOAT.

I'm hopeless at keeping up to date with lucha, so I thought I'd throw out some thoughts on what I watched over the holidays. Apparently, CMLL had an awful year business-wise. Personally I enjoyed the in-ring product more than I have in years. Virus vs. Fuego, 10/1 was an excellent, old-school style title match. The matwork wasn't as fluid as classic lucha, but it was similar to IWRG matwork in that both guys seemed to be laying down a challenge. I thought Fuego's bridging spots were a fantastic response to that challenge, and although many of the holds were static, I was impressed that they managed to avoid the pitfalls of "your turn/my turn" through natural athleticism. Fuego impressed me in general. I thought he hung with Virus tremendously well and even added plenty of his own touches. The transition on the outside where Fuego pulled Virus from the apron after the big tope spot was clever stuff. I think that's what I've noticed most about CMLL this year: instead of the same telegraphed transitions in every match, the work has been tighter and the rhythm a whole lot better. I'd probably put this third behind Panther/Casas and that Santo tag at this stage. Casas/Oro, 9/2 was also good. Someone once joked that Casas sleeps upside down in the CMLL booking office like a vampire bat, but I think the key to his longevity is the way he's tweaked and adjusted his offense over the last decade or more. There was a period where I hated watching Casas work these modern matches, but I've got to admit he's really good at the tit-for-tat modern style. This was counterrific and extremely even. Casas gave Oro a hell of a lot, and while I don't watch many Oro matches, I assume he looked better than usual. So it was a job well done. Casas/Maya Jr, 12/25 was soft, though. Some of the spots were okay, but Maya didn't seem up for it. You know it's a bad sign when I'm looking at the grey in Casas' hair and thinking how distinguished he looks. Hijo del Fantasma/Rey Cometa/Valiente vs. Niebla Roja/Puma King/Virus, 9/21 had a typically excellent opening exchange between Virus and Valiente who arguably work together better than any other pair in lucha. The rest of the match was "there" and I had a hard time giving a fuck about what anybody else did. Shigeo Okumura vs. Valiente, 5/1 was a cool showcase for Valiente, who is still obscenely underrated. He's such a fantastic worker. I really have no idea who Shigeo Okumura is, but considering how I usually dislike watching non-luchadores in lucha I thought he did a pretty good job. Match was far from a Match of the Year contender, and I lost interest in the street run partially because the sound was out of sync, but a Valiente singles match is always worth watching. Lastly, the Rush vs. El Terrible, 9/14 hair match. I didn't know anything about the storyline going into this match. I'd never seen either guy and I didn't know this was the main event of the Anniversary Show as I wasn't aware of anything that was going on over the summer. The Rush guy seemed significantly better than El Terrible, but Terrible got better as the match wore on. Usually, I'd have a quiet bitch about how there's no-one who knows how to work a hair match properly anymore and how much it pisses me off, but this was like watching something like Rayo de Jalisco, Jr vs. Universo 2000 on speed and how a cool "CMLL is where the big boys play" vibe to it. And there was even blood, lo and behold. Some cool spots in this one, especially Rush's dropkick off the apron and both men's use of the barricade. The finish confused the fuck out of me as I was expecting all of the bullshit that's surrounded CMLL hair match in recent years and instead it ended clean as a whistle. Had to "rewind" it as I didn't know what was going on. Fun match, but neither guy has quite mastered the type of Perro Aguayo/Los Hermanos Dinamita flair for the dramatics in this sort of big match setting.

'95 and '96 were prime years for Bret irrespective of how he was booked or how much time he took of. The big question mark around Bret is how good he would've remained if Montreal hadn't happened. How good would the rumoured Bret/Austin rematch been at Wrestlemania XV, what other opponents he would have had great matches with, how they would've booked him, whether he'd have had another run on top as the face champ, etc.

A Bret fan could probably extend his peak back to '92, perhaps even earlier than that of they're a super Bret fan. Certainly starting around the time of his singles push.

Even if they hadn't botched the screwy finish, I'd have a hard time considering that a clean job. I thought the whole reason for the finish was that Hogan didn't want to job clean, or is that just folklore?

Used to be a big fan. Was very invested in the Hitman from the time I picked up wrestling again in '95 for a good five or six years after that. Was legitimately shocked and upset over the whole Montreal thing at the time as I was a huge Bret fan and a loyal WWF fan. Aside from the Benoit matches the only thing he did in WCW was the promo where he called out Goldberg and tricked him into spearing him while he was wearing a metal plate. The Hart family stuff wore me down eventually and I kind of lost interest in Bret around the time I lost interest in the WWF. Would prefer not to watch his matches these days as there's nothing new about them. The last time I watched the Hart Foundation I was bored shitless. He was a good worker in his own little world he created for himself, but I'd hesitate to call him a great one. I always got the impression that he preferred looking good against bigger guys then working with skilled opponents.

Here's some film of Adrian Street/Bobby Barnes vs. Alan Dennison/Sid Cooper from the 60s, plus a tiny bit of Jackie Pallo vs. Johnny Kwango.

Man, remember when Terry Taylor had that super rep for his booking or whatever it was he was supposed to do. People were all giddy when he jumped to the WWF.

Kent Walton didn't get a lot of face time on WoS, so I thought this was kind of fun --

Fuck me, Big Daddy grappled in this match and it was actually pretty good. This is the most surprising thing I've seen in ages:

Just noticed I've listed three matches from the 11/16/72 card, all of which were on the same episode. I guess that makes it my favourite episode of WoS.

Another great match from the 70s: Davie Barrie vs. Sid Cooper (11/16/72) Shit, what a match! Cooper I knew was one of the best heels in the business, but Barrie I'd never head of. He was billed as Les Kellet's protege but it turns out he was actually his son, and the apple didn't fall very far from the tree when it came to wrestling ability. The match is mostly Barrie trying to fight through a barrage of forearms from Cooper, but the crowd is rabid. Probably the loudest WoS crowd I've ever heard. They keep stomping their feet and shouting and screaming. There's two really great moments in the match. The first is at the bell. Cooper is on Barrie's shoulders and Barrie lays him on the turnbuckle then suddenly attacks him. The ref steps in and Barrie spends the interval jawing with him, something you rarely see from faces in WoS. He's hugely fired up and so is Walton who is practically marking out. The second is when Cooper has Barrie in a Boston crab at the money end and breaks the hold to kick him in the back. The crowd go nuts and this woman springs to her feet and slams her fist on the apron. The finish is absolutely fantasitc as well and people are on their feet afterwards, which again is special for WoS. Great match.

After watching the excellent Virus/Fuego title match, I think the answer to this is Virus.

That's cool.

Man, I was watching a Flair/Garvin houseshow match from '85 last night. I don't watch a lot of Flair these days but sometimes you've got to stop and admire how he put it all together as a performer. I also watched parts of the '86 Superstation special and when they did the crowd montage to Dire Straits it really drove home the cross section of fans they had back then. These days the crowds all seem to be twenty-somethings. At least on TV, dunno about houseshows. Finally, were Willie Nelson and Dusty Rhodes really friends?

What's with the blog function on this site? It keeps doing screwy things with the font and font size and the page views never increase. Buggy stuff like that.

Emilio Charles, Jr vs. Atlantis, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 8/14/92 Emilio Charles, Jr was one of the first luchadores I became a fan of. In fact, it was Dean or one of the other playa's review of the 12/89 Charles/Dandy title match that sparked my interest in lucha in the first place. After I saw that match, I tracked down the rest of their '89 feud, kick starting one of the more satisfying love affairs with any style in my wrestling fandom history. I was shocked to hear of his passing the other day, as I'm sure everyone was, and decided to watch one of his matches. Having read about Charles before I ever saw him, the first thing that stood out about him was his name. In a world filled with Satanicos and Villanos, Emilio Charles, Jr seemed a tad bit ordinary for a heel. It reminded me of a cross between Emilio Estevez and Charles in Charge, but it had a certain ring to it, and sure enough if there's anything to be said about Charles it's that the man had personality. He was as entertaining doing apron work as he was in showcase matches, and even in the smallest of bit parts his trios work was always memorable. He had a face only his mother could love and hair that practically goaded opponents into wager matches. And above all, like every great heel, he had a shit-eating grin the size of the gulf of Mexico. He was a great worker, as equally adept at grappling as he was brawling, and he was a fantastic bumper, rivalling at times even Pirata Morgan. Like all the great bumpers, his body eventually broken down, as I've mentioned a thousand times on this blog, but he was always savvy even if it was a slippery slope down from his late 80s peak. This was a much better match than I remembered. I think I was turned off it the first time because people had praised it as a mat classic. I don't think some arm work and a couple of cool submissions from Emilio make for a mat classic, but this match is something different. You don't often see the type of sustained armwork that Emilio works here or the long term limb selling that Atlantis exhibits, and luchadores usually tap instantaneously rather than fight for all death like Atlantis does here. I don't know what prompted them to work the match like this. Emilio wasn't Atlantis' best opponent (that would be Blue Panther) and Atlantis wasn't Emilio's best opponent (that would be Dandy), but they had a certain chemistry together which is best evidenced in their match from '88, which is sometimes confused as being from '84 and is really fast paced, cutting edge lucha. Rather than being great on the mat together, they were awesome at fast paced rope work, slick counters and exciting nearfalls. All of those trademarks can be found in this match, but there's also the narrative of Atlantis surviving a ton of work on his injured arm. It's actually quite a superhuman effort if you look at it from a technical viewpoint of what Emilio actually did his arm, and I suppose there has to be question marks over how believable it was, but I kind of looked at it from the perspective that Atlantis had held the belt for over two years and defended it at least twenty times (with a worked, possibly real number that was even higher) and they really wanted to put Emilio's challenge over out of respect or some other reason. That's what I'd like to believe anyway as they really went out of their way to make it seem like Emilio could win. I didn't think it was one of the truly epic lucha title matches, but it was rock solid. I've never had a problem with the rapid fire, equalising fall as I think it's a great storytelling tool and helps turn the momentum, and the finish didn't bother me other than the fact that the rhythm could've been better. All told it was a fine defence and Emilio looked good for 1992 Emilio. It's hard to believe he's gone, but y'know, I was having this conversation with my co-worker the other day about how weird it is when you're watching an old movie and you suddenly realise that everyone in this movie is dead, and I guess that Emilio's career will keep playing out on youtube and grainy VHS tapes for decades to come. Always young, always great, always one of the very best. Emilio Charles, Jr.

Time for some Rocky Moran appreciation. Moran is the Belfast brawler no-one's ever heard of. He was from the same stable of wrestlers as Finlay and made his television debut a few years after Finlay had established himself, quickly becoming one of the more consistently entertaining guys on television after the All Star split. He wasn't as athletic as Finlay, but he had the same core skills. He could work pretty much any style and was equally adept on the mat or at brawling, and with his long mane and his 80s working class moustache (stick a pair of bad jeans on him and a vinyl jacket and he looks like a character out of a Ken Loach film), he made for a quality heel. In fact, he kind of reminds me of the Emilio Charles, Jr of British wrestling. He looks like a chippy or a sparky. Steve Logan vs. Rocky Moran (5/10/83) Alan Kilby vs. Rocky Moran (6/28/83) Fuji Yamada vs. Rocky Moran (11/25/86) The first match is Moran's television debut. He plays it straight on debut and it's basically a decent technical match with the young "blue eyes" Steve Logan, showing off some of Moran's wrestling skills. The Kilby match is a title match and a really good one. Moran is in heel mode here and Kilby ends up getting well fired up, which much with the likes of a Tito Santana is the best Alan Kilby. The match ended just as it was getting heated (for my money), but the finish is great as they avoid the obvious cop out and go with a different ending. The Yamada match is nothing special. Yamada brings a real juniors feel to it and it's not like European wrestling at all. Moran does a good job putting it over. The work is more state of the art than Sammy Lee, but Sayama was more exciting than Yamada and had more charisma.

I don't like the modern CMLL style so I don't think terribly much of the matches Averno had, but I think he got his due amongst people who do like that style of lucha as well as from the promotion. Freelance should have been the 2000s Rey Mysterio, Jr. but wasn't.

Finally got around to listening to the show with John Lister. Would love to hear who John's favourite workers are, what he thinks the best matches are and which of the "made for TV" gimmicks he liked the best out of the Tally Hos and the Streets and the Maxines and so on.

CMLL had two oustanding years in the 90s -- 1990 and 1997. It also had good years in '91, '92 and '96. We know that it had an excellent year in '89, which is the only semi-complete year we have from the 80s, but it's safe to assume from the '83-88 footage we have along with wrestling magazines and other anecdotal evidence that it was better for a longer and more sustained period than the 90s. A lot of promotions in the 90s peaked for two or three years and then nose dived. AJW may have had better wrestling from '92-94 than the decade prior but it fell off the cliff in a way that 80s AJW never really did despite being bookended by post-boom periods (post-Beauty Pair to open the decade and post-Crush Girls to finish.) All of the Japanese promotions went south in the 90s around the time when Japan really began to feel the crunch of the bubble bursting. The same argument applies for the territories in the States by the end of the 80s, but if wrestling hadn't been reasonably robust by the end of that decade then the so-called 90s peak never would have occurred. I'd also argue that there's a lot of 90s wrestling that hasn't aged as well as 80s wrestling. A lot of it looks dated.

It's the WWF. I don't think it's realistic to expect Dibiase to wrestle like Tully. Curt Hennig didn't wrestle like AWA Curt Hennig in the WWF, did he? He was still considered a technician in the WWF. Also, aren't you watching a match from a guy Dibiase was supposed to be feuding with? Wouldn't it make more sense to watch a wider sample? Jobber matches, random Prime Time matches, matches against other technicians, etc.

It depends on the type of wrestling. For the most part I'm interested in watching great matches from my favourite workers, but if there's a style, promotion or era I'm interested in then I'll watch everything from the point of view of the style/promotion/era.

A heel technican who didn't take liberties would be a pretty shitty gimmick.