ohtani's jacket

Paul Orndorff vs. Sgt. Slaughter, 6/2/84 This was pretty disappointing. I liked the entrances and the early stalling was okay, but everything after that was generic for these two. Paul Orndorff vs. Hulk Hogan, MSG 2/20/84 Paul Orndorff vs. Hulk Hogan, Cap Centre 7/28/84 Paul Orndorff vs. Hulk Hogan, Philadelphia 4/27/85 There were some good spots in these early Hogan/Orndorff matches but it seemed like both guys were still finding their way and hadn't got their formula down pat. A lot of dead air for such short matches. Another batch of matches I found myself multi-tasking during.

Randy Savage vs. Harley Race, Philadelphia 9/18/87 Randy Savage vs. Paul Orndorff, Philadelphia 6/28/86 Harley Race vs. Koko B Ware, Toronto 9/20/87 These were disappointing. They seemed to highlight the difference between having a beef and working a regular match. Perhaps it's only natural, but the regular matches aren't anywhere near as exciting or interesting as the heated brawls. The 20 minute draw between Koko and Race was a chore. Even Bobby ran out of jokes to make about Frankie and the commentary began to drag. Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk, Philadelphia 12/7/85 Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk, Toronto 12/15/85 Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk, SNME 1/4/86 These were good matches but they could have been better. Terry worked a looser style than Race and it seemed like there was less substance to this series. That's not to say the matches aren't fun, however. My favourite part was when Funk threatened a guy in the crowd in Philly with the branding iron and got the double finger. Philly all the way.

Mooney kicked off the first Monday Night RAW, right? But Slick wasn't on RAW until episode three. Don't get the Slick appearance. EDIT: OK, they needed a reverend.

In retrospect, I should have only watched the MSG Hogan/Boss Man matches or the Boston matches, but I watched the matches out of order and by the time I clicked it was too late. I do think it was a particular problem with the Hogan/Boss Man feud, however, as I loved every single match in the next feud: Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, Boston 5/2/87 Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, Philadelphia 5/9/87 Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, Toronto 5/17/87 Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, MSG 5/18/87 Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, Texas Death Match, Boston 6/6/87 Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, Texas Death Match, MSG 6/14/87 Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race, SNME 3/7/88 These matches were tremendous. I remember This Is Workrate on Smarkschoice was always pimping these, but I really had no idea that Race produced at this level during his WWF run. I also labeled myself a Hogan skeptic in a recent thread, but these 10 minute brawls he had with workers like Orndorff and Race were outstanding. I had no idea Hogan bladed so often on houseshows. I think he bled in all of these bar the nationally televised version. The May matches are essentially the same with the same finish, same post-match beatdown and same challenge for a Texas Death Match where Hogan would quit wrestling if he lost, but Race was so good in each of them that it didn't bother me that the same spots were being repeated. My image of Harley in the WWF was that he was out of place and broken down, but either he saw this as his last big payday or I've been watching the wrong matches because he was busted his ass in these matches. Some of the diving headbutt spots, especially the ones on the outside, were insane. I couldn't really choose one match over the other out of the May matches, but I did think the finish looked better in the Boston, Philly and Toronto matches rather than the MSG match. The MSG Texas Death Match was my favourite of all the bouts. If you ignore the fact that it's not really a Texas Death Match as such and just view it as a no-DQ brawl, it's such an awesome grudge match. And this time round I even liked their SNME match, which was a truncated version of their May '87 bouts but with plenty of solid brawling, including a cool table spot. I had no idea there were so many good WWF matches I'd never seen.

Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, Toronto 11/6/88 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, Los Angeles 11/17/88 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, MSG 11/26/88 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, Boston 12/3/88 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, Los Angeles 12/17/88 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, Boston 1/13/89 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, MSG 1/23/89 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, Philadelphia 2/11/89 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, cage match, Boston 3/18/19 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, cage match, MSG 4/18/89 Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Boss Man, cage match, SNME 4/25/89 Fuck, that's a lot of Hulk Hogan vs. Big Boss Man matches. I think I watched all of them except maybe the first two Boston matches. Towards the end, I just had them playing in the background while I did other things since they were so damn repetitive. The first couple of times I thought they were solid matches, but the shitty finishes and the same, reoccuring matches really killed my enthusiasm for this match-up. The SNME cage match I think is overrated, but the superplex is still an amazing spot. It's too bad they do the double countout spot afterwards where Hogan sits up like the Undertaker at eight. It's interesting to note that they fuck up the superplex in the Boston match and don't even try it in MSG (or the other way around.) Anyway, this series drained my will to live.

Hogan vs. Orndorff Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff, Philadelphia 9/20/86 Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff, DQ rule waived, Phildelphia 10/18/86 Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff, cage match, Philadelphia 12/13/86 This feud happened a few years before I got into wrestling and despite being a fan for about 25 years I never had the inclination to watch it. That all changed yesterday. As with Orndorff's face turn, both the acting and execution of the angle could've been a hell of a lot better to set-up this feud, but I did like how the heels were like one big fraternity in 1986 with Bundy, Studd and Adonis all congratulating Orndorff backstage. I also thought a lot of the other details of the feud like the promos, Orndorff stealing Hogan's music and Hogan continually biting on that string bandana thing he wore were weak compared to a lot of other 80s WWF feuds. I couldn't really understand why the piledriver was used so sparingly in terms of the psychology, either, but I guess it wasn't put over that much during Orndorff's turn. Anyway, their Big Event match and the SNME matches were largely rubbish. The 10/86 title match was okay, but it was an excuse to push the Adonis/Piper feud and ultimately worthless. I did, however, discover this series of matches from Philly that I thought were really fun. The first match is more or less the 10/86 title match, but with blood and a brass knuckles spot that winds up getting Hogan DQ'ed. Hogan's selling is strong in this match and while Orndorff's brawling isn't quite as good as it is in the Piper feud he still puts in a good performance. This leads to a rematch where the DQ rule is waived meaning that the title can change hands on a disqualification. Heenan and Orndorff try to goad Hogan into DQ'ing himself and again there's blood and some decent brawling. I actually saw the same match from Houston (like literally the same match), but there wasn't any blood and it was shot like a studio match which made it seem odd. The blowoff, if you can call it that, is a better version of their SNME cage match, again with blood. It's a WWF cage match so it won't appeal to everyone, but I grew up with WWF cage match rules and they seem normal to me. I don't know what else is available from this period, but comparing the gimmick matches in Philly and then Houston, the way the matches got blood at the Spectrum was interesting. During the WCW poll, I took quite a liking to Orndorff and watched a lot of his stuff from both his comeback and Pretty Wonderful. I wouldn't call him a great worker as the other day I watched a really boring Cowboy Bob Orton/Orndorff match that proved he should've been only working sub 10 minute brawls, but I liked these Hogan matches and the Piper matches a lot.

I didn't know that Kurt Angle still wrestles.

Of course Shawn is going to look better if your match choices are so poor.

Totally random question, but who usually does a worker's face paint before a show? The worker himself?

Don't you think the existence of so many streaming sites suggests that filesharing is more prevelant in Japan than you assumed? I mean Nico Nico Douga is one of the biggest Japanese sites on the internet. There are a lot of Japanese people who simply don't know how to download. The other day a girl I know in her 30s asked me how you download music from the internet. She wasn't against it at all, she just didn't know how to do it. Another girl asked me whether you get a virus when you download things, but I've yet to encounter anyone who's been against it particularly when online streaming is so popular. Whenever I go CD hunting in Japan, I always rub shoulders with older guys. I don't really believe that younger Japanese people have any qualms about downloading stuff. You can burn Tsutaya CDs to your heart's content in Japan, but even they're complaining about loss of revenue from illegal downloading. The rest of the stuff is a bit off topic, but Rob's problem was that the company that hired him is busiest on the weeknights and weekends and doesn't offer much work during the day, which kills your social life. In Kanto you need to make plans in advance as most people are busy seeing other people they know. If your friends are busy you have to go out and meet new people, which you can't do if you're at work all the time.

I didn't buy Piper and Schultz doing that to Andre. I did like the Piper/Orton vs. Snuka/Tongan Kid tag, however. Roddy Piper vs. Bruno Sammartino, Boston 12/7/85 Roddy Piper vs. Bruno Sammartino, cage match, Boston 2/8/86 These were better than they had a right to be. It was basically the same sort of stooging performance from the Piper/Snuka series, but Bruno was a lot more believable dishing out a beating to Piper and the matches were pretty fun. Roddy Piper vs. Rick Rude, MSG 9/30/89 This had the same kind of problems as the Toronto match I talked about earlier in this thread. Piper vs. Rude was a good idea for a feud, but instead of doing the short, frenetic brawls that have been entertaining me over the past few days, they'd start out going hammer and tongs, then Rude would take control of the match and do all of his restholds. Piper would fight back, the match would be thrown out in inspid fashion, they'd brawl about ringside a bit and nothing would be settled. Only the first few matches are worth watching, unless you're a glutton for Rude's camel clutch.

Check out the tag match from MSG with Piper/Schultz vs Snuka/Andre for something more along the lines of what you wished for. All right, I will. I've been mostly concentrating on Piper singles matches, but if there are any good tags fire away.

Roddy Piper vs. Bob Orton Jr., Philadelphia 11/8/86 Roddy Piper vs. Bob Orton Jr., SNME 11/29/86 These were pretty disappointing considering their break-up was a pretty big deal. The Philly match has its moments when they're brawling and with some of the offense Orton brings, but I wasn't feeling the Piper as face and Orton as heel dynamic, and Piper ran through him fair too easily. The SNME was the usual five minute nonsense. Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis, Buffalo, NY 12/27/86 Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis, Toronto 2/15/87 The Buffalo match was again pretty much a perfect houseshow match. Roddy started out like a house on fire until Hart managed to turn the tables. Piper then sold for some time while the crowd screamed for him to make a comeback and Adonis bumped big for the finish. Simple stuff, but well done. The Toronto match had a whole bunch of interference from Hart, Roddy being blinded by Adrian's perfume and a whole bunch of other carry on. It was the kind of match that made me a fan of wrestling as a kid as the action was simple to follow and the heels and face were so clearly delineated. Not a great match or anything, but a lot of fun and better than most Adonis matches from this era or Piper matches for that matter. Roddy Piper vs. Randy Savage, Miami 1/22/90 Pretty typical Macho King Randy Savage match. Roddy's physique looked different during this comeback. I couldn't figure out whether he was out of shape or it was some kind of side effect on being on the gas. The long hair look didn't really suit him, I thought. Piper got his hands on Sherri towards the end of the match and the camera man gave us a super close-up of her thong. Amazingly, both Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes refrained from commenting on it. Panty shot was probably the highlight of the match. Roddy Piper vs. Don Muraco, Boston 11/1/86 Roddy Piper vs. Don Muraco, Maple Leaf Gardens 11/16/86 Man, this Muraco matches were the worst. Fucking Don Muraco. Everytime you think it's going to the one Don Muraco match from the mid 80s where he doesn't suck ass and everytime he's awful.

The Piper/Snuka feud Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper, St. Louis 5/5/84 Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper, Philadelphia 7/7/84 Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper, MSG 8/25/84 Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper, Boston 3/2/85 Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper, Philadelphia 3/17/85 This stood in sharp contrast to the Piper/Orndorff feud in that it began with a classic angle but the matches were piss weak. The problem here was two-fold. Firstly, no matter how over or popular Snuka was, he didn't have the charisma or acting skills to get across his anger. The stone cold stare he gives Piper before their MSG match is kind of cool, but it doesn't translate into an electrifying match. It was almost like he was taking a cool, calm, calculated approach, but would end up getting his ass kicked by Piper. Orndorff was awful on the mic and his acting seemed forced or unnatural at times, but he at least got across that he was full of rage and that he wouldn't let anyone collect the bounty on his head no matter how fucked up he was at the end of the match. The other problem was that Piper was in full on stooge mode for most of the matches. Instead of the violent brawls he had with Orndorff, you'd get stereotypical heel/face schtick. The feud should have been bloodier and more intense than Piper/Ordnorff, but it was painfully run of the mill. The angle at the end of the MSG match is well done and makes Piper seem like a maniac, but that's about the only highlight from this feud.

You can read about the changes here -- http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/06/japan-downloading-law/ From what I can gather, every step of making Japanese TV available for download will be a criminal offense.

The Piper/Orndorff feud Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, MSG 7/13/85 Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, Capital Centre 7/20/85 Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, Philadelphia 7/27/85 Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, Boston 8/3/85 Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, Philadelphia 8/24/85 Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, SNME 10/5/85 This was a heck of a feud. The mic work from Orndorff to set up his face turn was incredibly lame, but from New York to Washington through to Philly and Boston this feud was hot. What impressed me most was that while all the matches were short, intense, violent brawls and they all followed the same basic match structure there was very little in the way of repetition of spots. It was only really by the time they got to Boston that they started rehashing some of their earlier stuff. The first three matches from July are fabulous. The MSG match is probably the most complete of the three in terms of a full match, but the Cap Centre and Philly matches do a great job of continuing where the MSG match left off. The only real fault in the three match run is that the finish to the Cap Centre match is a bit awkward, but they make up for it with some wild post-match antics. The second Philly match is basically the set-up for a Piper/Orton vs. Orndorff/Sammartino program that I wasn't interested in watching and the SNME match rather than delivering a payoff is a truncated version of their houseshow circuit. I guess the lack of a blowoff match is fairly typical with 80s WWF, but it would've been nice to see a decisive outcome before Orndorff moved on to his Hogan program.

I started teaching an EMI record executive recently and we began talking about the issue of downloading in Japan since the new downloading laws come into effect from October. Japan's CD sales are still relatively high compared to say America or the UK, but downloading exists. According to the music industry, there were 440 million legal downloads of music in 2010 and ten times the number of illegal downloads. Perhaps your students or the people you socialise with aren't so young.

I wonder what effect the new downloading laws in Japan will have on puro rips.

Roddy Piper vs. Randy Savage, Hamilton, Ontario 12/13/86 Man, was Piper over as a babyface or what? Super fun houseshow match between these two. It was wrestled pretty much perfectly for a houseshow audience with a lot of big, easy to follow action. A little on the short side, but plenty of intensity. Crowd got what they wanted even if Piper didn't win the belt.

Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. (CMLL 2/20/98) This was rudo contra rudo from what I could gather, but since Emilio was about to turn it was set up to garner him face heat. Broken down Emilio had his moments (as we'll see later), but a match this length was beyond him. He kind of struggled in that '93 hair match against Dandy let alone in a singles match five years later, and while I like Wagner he wasn't a good enough worker to make this interesting. They did all the things you're supposed to do in a mano a mano bout but with none of the intensity of say Santo and Casas. There was a title match the week after, but I'm not in any hurry to watch it. El Hijo Del Santo, Emilio Charles Jr. y Satanico vs. Shocker, Mr. Niebla y Negro Casas (CMLL 3/23/98) This set up the Emilio Charles Jr./Satanico hair match and was the catalyst for Emilio's face turn I suppose. Halfway through the match, Satanico was holding Shocker on the outside for Emilio to hit with his tope when Shocker ducked out the way. Emilio dove straight into Satanico's shoulder area and Satanico spent the rest of the match selling the injury. Apparently, accidental collisions between rudos do more damage than Emilio's tope would have done to Shocker, but bear with me. Later on, Satanico tagged in, but he bailed out and Emilio took his place. Emilio was on fire and cleaning house when Satanico suddenly attacked him. The execution of all this was a little off, but the brawling was good. There was one punch from Satanico which absolutely clocked Charles. Other than that it wasn't much of a trios. Rudo Santo was really old at this point and I was sick of Santo vs. Casas no matter how good their chemistry was. Lizmark and Atlantis vs. The Head Hunters (CMLL 10/25/96) Not a fan of tag matches in lucha. Trios are brilliant, but regular tags aren't something luchadores do well and this match was no exception. Lizmark and Atlantis are two of the greatest technicos of the latter half of the 20th century as far as classical, masked luchadores go, but at no point in this match did they seem like a great tag team. There just isn't the culture of standard two on two tag wrestling in lucha that there is in the States, for example, and I dislike the parejas psychology where one member from each team is pinned and effectively eliminated. It also didn't help that I wasn't into the spots that Atlantis and Lizmark did with the Head Hunters compared to the sort of things I saw Satanico, Dantes and Wagner do the other day. Misterioso, Volador y Mano Negra vs Javier Llanes, El Supremo y Espectro Jr. (CMLL 5/31/91) This was good stuff. You can tell a promotion is doing well when its lower card stuff is this enjoyable. The rudos didn't do much but the technicos were exciting. Match flowed well. Olimpico vs. Damian El Guerrero, mask vs. hair (CMLL 8/6/96) This was a really good lower card, almost junior-esque hair vs. mask match. It was mostly big dives with some brawling mixed in, but they really nailed it. The crowd threw them money after it was over and Olimpico was asked to kiss a baby. Universo 2000, Mascara Año 2000 y Dr.Wagner Jr vs Atlantis, Hector Garza y Canek (CMLL 11/24/95) This was also really good. 1995 was right around the time that Wagner started to get good and he had great chemistry with Atlantis here, but the guy who has impressed me most during all his random viewing has been Hector Garza. I don't think it's any secret that I don't really like young workers, but Garza in '95/96 was quite possibly the most exciting young worker I've seen. I don't find him charismatic like I did with a young Dantes, but his offense was insane and I swear I almost popped for the win he gets here. The match almost descends into the type of mask removing that gets a bout thrown out, but it gets back on track and features some great action. Villano III vs. Atlantis (CMLL 2/11/00) This was a title match that was part of the build-up to the famous mask match between these two. It was also proof that bullshit finishes involving the Villanos began as early as 2000. Atlantis injured Villano with his torture rack to end the second fall and it seemed like he was primed to take Villano's Light Heavyweight title until Villano IV draped his brother over his shoulders and took him backstage for what I guess amounted to an injury break. The ref began counting him out, but when he returned he had recovered enough to win, at least I think that's what was going on. Before all that was some pretty good wrestling. Not as good as what they had been capable of only a few years earlier, but some of the stuff they did was fantastic and made you wish they'd had a straight up title match instead of an angle. These two in particular really brought the fantastic submissions you think of when you think of lucha. Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Silver King, hair vs. hair (CMLL 9/27/96) I can't remember if I've seen this before, but I think I would have remembered it because it was really good. In fact, it's probably the best match I've seen Silver King have. I'm probably wrong in saying that, but I really dug this. It started off with Silver King getting a quick pinfall off a hot start. I guess most people dislike that trope in lucha, but his timing was perfect and it looked really good. Emilio's transition onto offensive after being rocked early was awesome. Silver King went for a plancha suicida and Emilio caught him with a punch. From there they bled and fought and all of the nearfalls were great. I think the key to the match was that it wasn't that long, which helped with Emilio's stamina issues. Emilio with his beard keeps reminding me of Helmsley if Helmsley ballooned out and suddenly had the body of Jim Duggan, but I think to a certain extent that the good part of his career was longer and more productive than I imagined. This was certainly choice. Brazo de Plata vs. Gran Markus Jr. (CMLL 5/29/98) In my world this should headline the Anniversary show.

Mascara Año 2000, Fuerza Guerrera y Herodes vs. MS-1, El Dandy y Astro de Oro, circa '89 For some reason El Dandy and MS-1 were on the same side here. That didn't last long. Match was pretty much an angle to set up Dandy vs. MS-1 and Mascara Año 2000 vs. Astro de Oro matches. Wouldn't mind seeing that Dandy/MS-1 match if it ever took place. Satanico, Apolo Dantes y Dr.Wagner Jr vs. The Head Hunters y Emilio Charles Jr., circa '98 This was a lot of fun. Satanico was sporting a skinhead here and I'm guessing this was after Emilio took his hair as the rudos paid Emilio plenty of attention. Broken down Emilio was pretty spry here. The rudo side was really solid and he had to fight his way out of a number of predicaments. It's times like these you need a pair of fat men in your corner. The Head Hunters slotted into lucha well, which isn't usually the case with foreigners but these guys got a lot of mileage out of their girth. The rudos had a field day with the sight gags they were able to create but there was also some good hard hitting action. Most of all I was impressed with the amount of effort Emilio and Satanico put in to this midcard spot. Once a pro always a pro. Javier Monarca Cruz, Eddie y Mando Guerrero vs. Cachorro Mendoza, Apolo Dantes y Mano Negra, circa '91 This was a pretty standard trios. The match-ups were mostly good but nobody really stood out. I enjoyed watching Apolo Dantes. He was really young here and there was a real fire to everything he did. Watching him here I would have picked him to be a headliner in the mold of Cien Caras. I'm not sure he ever lived up to his potential, but I'm equally unsure that he was given the chance. The highlight of the match was Mando getting right in Apolo's face. He looked like somebody's dad who coaches the local football team, but he sure as hell didn't have any time for snot assed punks. Also worth tracking was Mano Negra, who was always a quietly solid worker. Eddie had a night to forget, including possibly the worst botch of his career. He tried leaping onto the top rope from the apron and fell over face first. I was always under the impression that when this happens in lucha the other worker (in this case Dantes) lays in some stiffer than usual shots to recover, but Dantes went for a rolling cradle where they came out looking even. Negro Casas vs. El Hijo del Santo, circa '95 I'm guessing this is their September '95 match. This was a really brilliant mano a mano bout. Neither guy could take the upper hand so it descended into this niggly, underhanded brawl with a lot of cheap shots. It was actually the worst I've seen Santo behave as a technico, which laid the seeds for his heel turn presumably. If you like Casas' stuff with Panther you'll love this as his brawling was even better here. He almost had Santo in a mount position and was pummeling him with great looking punches. I don't know if Casas bleed hardway or not, but he wound up with one of the most realistic looking cuts I've seen in wrestling. It was like a boxing cut and provided some great visuals. The finish was this wonderful mass of confusion as the ref caught an elbow from Casas flush in the face, then Santo gave Casas a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron. Somehow there was a DQ in all this and Santo wandered around with his mask torn to shit asking a member of the public whether he thought it was a DQ while Alfonso Morales tried to interview the ref. I need to watch this again. Pierroth, Satanico y Kung Fu vs. El Dandy, Mogur y Kato Kung Lee, circa '91 I'm not sure what the deal was with this match. There was some sort of karate exhibition before it began, which was embarrasing in how little it resembled karate, and then Satanico cut a promo. By the time all that was over there was only time for one fall. Whether this was a one fall match or the rest of the match is missing or the uploader made a mistake, I'm not sure, but they went through the pairs once and then a second time and that was all that was uploaded. The action was fantastic, though. Even Mogur looked good in this. Blue Panther, Black Panther y Fuerza Guerrera vs. Hector Garza, El Dandy y El Hijo del Santo, circa '95/96 This was the best of the lot. I don't know if Black Panther was the Puebla worker or not, but he was pretty damn good and led Garza through some pretty decent grappling exchanges to start this. That freed Dandy up to partner Panther and allowed Santo to pair off with Fuerza, two match-ups you don't see enough of. Hardcore fans may be disappointed that they brawl instead of having classic exchanges, but their brawling is every bit as good as you'd expect and the match is packed with wild spots. This was in that period where Garza did insane shit every match and I swear he takes this bump to the outside where his head bounces off the top rope. Deep into the third, Panther's mask is all torn up and it's amusing how easily you can recognise him now with half his face showing. Fuerza also has a torn mask and it never really occurred to me how much hair he has packed under that thing. Match ends with a sensational dive train: Garza's corkscrew plancha, Santo's plancha suicida and a double topes from Santo and Dandy that made them look like the greatest tag team that ever lived. Excellent match.

Ultraman, Stuka & Kung Fu vs. Herodes, Masakre & El Satanico, Arena Coliseo 80s This seemed like an exciting match on paper, but it was very much a houseshow match. That wasn't so bad, however, as there were a couple of good laughs. The first half of the match featured a bunch of physical comedy designed to make the rudos look foolish while the second half was a beatdown where the technicos paid for their cheekiness. I love how rudos from this generation could switch from comedy to asskickery without missing a beat, and of course they were led by Satanico, one of the all-time great workers at leading an ass kicking. Satanico's range never ceases to amaze me. He had a comical exchange with Kung Fu that was Shaw Brothers in its choreography then during the beatdown he paraded around like the joke was on the technicos only to lay in the type of shots that showed how pissed he was at being humiliated. I also dug watching Herodes in this match. He's a guy who there's not a lot of footage of but who deserves his rep. Some funky stuff as a base for Stuka, great barrel roll bumps to the outside and cool immovable object spots. Masakre was better later on with the Infernales and Ultraman and Kung Fu weren't at their best here, but for a regular night out at Coliseo it was a nice little slice of 80s lucha.

It sounds like you went back and forth between early RINGS and the later more Pancrase influenced stuff.

Don't quite see the correlation when MMA is pretty much dead in Japan well.

La Fiera vs. Babe Face, hair vs. hair, 8/15/86 This was a good match. It didn't really deliver like a great hair match does, but still worth a look. The first time I watched it I thought the first two falls were a bit innocuous looking. I always get defensive when people say the first two falls in lucha are nothing falls as most of the time I think they work within the rhythm of a lucha libre match, but with these 80s matches the crowds are so poorly mic'ed that it's difficult to get a feel for the rhythm at times. Watching it again, Fiera gave a slightly more nuanced performance in the opening falls than I realised but there were still a few things I had a problem with. One of those problems was Fiera's offense: I'm not a big fan of Fiera's high kick offense to begin with, but I thought it looked particularly strange with the size difference between the workers and Babe Face not being a big bumper. I also thought he used too much high end offense for the first fall of a hair match. I prefer hair matches to be straight out brawling; if they use big moves to try to win the match in the final caida then that's understandable, but I think the matches should start with some haymakers. These guys had some pretty good trash talking/finger pointing going on before the bell, and this was the 80s where a worker would show up for a hair match in some kind of awesome jacket and cut a promo at ringside directed at his opponent; but they went with a slow burning, smouldering start to this match and although there was blood I thought Babe Face's transition back onto offense and his winning submission was weak by hair match standards. Where this match got good was in the third caida. There wasn't any major catalyst for the improvement in the match; they just started brawling in earnest. Fiera's selling was top notch. I loved the slight delay on his flailing bump anytime Babe Face delivered a headbutt or knockdown punch. He was also excellent at pacing his way through the opening section of the fall. He had his back to the canvas a lot and was in danger of succumbing to a second straight submission, and his first comeback attempt was for naught as his arm was too weakened to punch properly. The rest of the match was filled with lots of great little details as that big Fiera offense I mentioned left him increasingly groggy every time he tried to land a knockout blow. The highlight of the match was a face plant he took off a missed plancha from the apron. True dedication to his art. I was just getting into this match and there had just been a moment of typically great controversy in a match like this when all of a sudden it ended. That was a real buzz killer. I thought they could have gone a few minutes longer, though it was pretty obvious that it was Fiera doing all the work. I'm not sure that Babe Face had much chops, at least at this point in his career. Still for what this was I enjoyed it and it was good to see some prime Fiera.