ohtani's jacket

Mick McManus' ears.

It doesn't end there. Wait until the first time baby is sick enough you have to rush her to the ER. It takes years off your own life. Babies are amazing, but nobody told me how scary that part would be.

Gorilla would always shoot this down in commentary saying it took too long for Tito to get fired up. He had a point, though. Tito was at his best when he was fired up but it seledom ever happened.

I was a Hunter fan during the '98-00 period, but the thing that really killed him for me was when it was revealed he was behind the Austin hit and run. That was almost as underwhelming as the Higher Power.

I just read the debut of Sgt. Slaughter in the GI Joe comic. Didn't look a bit like Remis. Didn't look like the cartoon or action figure, either.

I stopped watching in 1991 after it was taken off the air due to parental complaints, probably would've stopped watching in '95 if I hadn't discovered the internet and stopped watching WWE properly in 2001 when the midcard failed to deliver the type of matches I expected after the WCW guys jumped. In particular, the Jericho vs. Benoit and Benoit/Angle matches really disappointed me. I suppose the company ended up delivering the type of matches I wanted to see during the Smackdown Six era, but I skipped that era altogether and didn't even read about it. I still enjoy the occasional WWE match these days, but I doubt I'll ever watch their weekly programming again. Reading the Hunter thread is amusing to me as I remember at the time I was such a big WWF fan that all I wanted was for Hunter to get over and WWF to continue their hot run against WCW. It's a lot more enjoyable when you're that into a promotion even if it's stupid. Japan is worse, though. I've lived in Tokyo for six years and haven't been to a wrestling show once. I could have hiked out to BattlARTS or Futen and probably should have, and I suppose I could have seen guys like Solar and Navarro, but I dunno if I'd go if it was free. Lucha has actually been pretty enjoyable of late, including a lot of good stuff from CMLL, so I can watch a few matches a month and be satisfied.

On second review it wasn't a five star match. Sorry to disappoint.

What an edition of Tito Santana vs. The World we've got in store for you today. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #38 -- Skinner The alligator man. These guys did some things worthy of Steve Keirn vs. Tito Santana, but if work is ever a barometer of how happy guys are both these guys seemed glum. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #39-- The Repo Man This was surprisingly good. I mean in a video library filled with matches that were never booked to anywhere and workers who didn't give a shit, these guys actually tried. It didn't count for much in the end, but there were some fun exchanges. Fuck knows what was going through Vince's mind with these gimmicks, though. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #40-- IRS Boring as shit. In other words, Rotunda's forte. Some guys are mechnical and sterile (Canek, Blue Demon Jr), Rotunda was just boring. It was like a disease. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #41 -- The Berzerker Coliseum Video, how was this a grudge match? I'll say this for Tito, the man had professional pride. Could have been worse. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #42-- w/ High Energy vs. The Repo Man and Nasty Boys Five star match. On par with the best lucha trios and All Japan six-mans.

Older lucha is closer to NWA style matwork, but NWA style matwork is bullshit for the most part. It's a bunch of leverage holds until it's time to hit the ropes and do a finish. Lucha matwork (when submission heavy) is far better. You need to watch the right guys on the mat, though. Casas and Santo aren't a good mat pairing. Santo was a better mat worker than Casas but you don't get strong matwork in most Santo matches unfortunately.

What other great Dangerous Alliance six mans are there? This is the great Dangerous Alliance six man. From memory I had this in my top 5.

Watched the Bryan Daniel vs. CM Punk champion vs. champion match. The match was okay but decidedly non-epic for a champion vs. champion match. There were no real moments of drama even by television match standards and neither guy seemed to play to character. Couldn't understand the set-up, either. Does anyone care about being vegan or straight edge or the best in the world? I couldn't figure out whether Danielson was a heel or not, but I've read people praising his acting of late and I can't see it. He's obviously charismatic to his fans but he lacks star quality. His wrestling style seems wildly out of place as well. Maybe it's because I watched the Cena matches first but Punk looks like a much better WWE worker. This is the way it seems to me. I'm probably completely wrong.

That Ohtani/Tajiri match was cool. I'm not sure how much mileage the Ohtani character had left in '97, but it was fun to see another match from before the run ended. Finlay/Tajiri didn't really click with me. It was good in parts but I thought Finlay was showing his age.

Fujiwara had a couple of tags against Roberts in UWF. He didn't have a singles match against Finlay in UWF but he did wrestle Marty Jones, Dalibar Singh and Keith Hayward. Finlay had singles matches against Maeda, Sayama and Yamazaki.

Whoa, Nellie! was one of Jaime's weaker pieces of work, IMO. I liked it better when the wrestling was in the backdrop of the Maggie and Rena stories. The wrestling matches are well drawn, though.

He wasn't a Navy SEAL. He was a frogman in an Underwater Demolition Team and never saw any combat.

I've seen that, but also Teddy Ruxpin and the Transformers listed. I'll admit that GI Joe was bigger than I thought. I will also point back to: Sarge joined them in 1986, after Hogan got the belt at the start of 1984, and after Sarge left the WWF. It's not a lock that Vince would have let him have the tie-in if Sarge was the WWF Champ. In fact, there's about a 0% chance Vince would have let it happen unless the majority of the money was going to Vince rather than Sarge. John I dug a little deeper and found Toy & Hobby World's Top 10 list for December 1985: 1. Cabbage Patch Kids and Transformers (tie) 3. Masters of the Universe 4. Pound Puppies 5. GI Joe 6. Voltron by Matchbox Toys (USA) 7. MASK 8. My Little Pony 9. Teddy Ruxpin 10. Princess of Power (She-Ra) November 1986: 1. GI Joe 2. Pound Puppies 3. Barbie 4. Teddy Ruxpin 5. MASK 6. Cabbage Patch Kids 7. Transformers 8. Lazer Tag 9. WWF Action Figures 10. M.U.S.C.L.E

GI Joe was the top selling toy in America in 1985.

Nothing says WCW more than Rey Mysterio's creepy Omen music -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW096ZkxLQo

Not really. Outside of Japan and North America, the NES was actually outsold by the Sega Master System. But the SMS only moved 13 million units worldwide, so even in areas where it was big, it wasn't that big. I had a Sega Master System, but a lot of my friends had Nintendos. I don't think we even knew or cared that they came from Japan. Mario and Sonic and Alex Kidd don't exactly scream "Japan."

Super Nintendo and Playstation were big everywhere, but that had more to do with Japanese technology than culture. New Japan being popular in Italy was quirky, but I'm not sure it fits the bill in terms of what Dave is talking about.

Pero Aguayo was a guy who people used to think sucked. Hogan wasn't as good as Aguayo. I better stop now before I ruin the thread.

Snuck in two more -- Regal vs. Ambrose from the WWF development territory and Cena vs. Mysterio, Jr. The former was a pretty good performance from Regal and the latter a solid mainevent for TV. Cherry picking modern WWE I think it's watchable stuff. I wouldn't want to watch it on a weekly basis or anything but the best matches, but I'd rather watch it than Japanese pro-wrestling or most lucha.

You'd think Hogan was Pero Aguayo the way people are going on about him as a worker. Something positive... when I was a kid my dad had a private client who was the splitting image of Hogan (minus the 24 inch pythons.) He even got a t-shirt made that said: "No, I'm not him." Anyway, my parents were forever talking about how much he looked like Hogan and finally I got the chance to see him when he dropped something off at our door one night. My dog always went nuts when someone came to the front door and usually peed everywhere. So, he knocks at the door and I creep out of my bedroom to get a peak at him, and sure enough he's a dead ringer for the Hulkster. I'll never forget the time the Hulkster was in my hallway and my dog peed on his leg.

The point Dave is making is right. It's a pretty well known point and not a major relevation, but Japan does a poor job of exporting its cultural products. I'm not sure Dave could name the American cultural products that are big in Japan, but he knows that American movie stars and musicians are big draws here. As Dave said on the radio show, Japan doesn't even do a good job of exporting its cultural products inside Asia. Korea does laps around Japan when it comes to film, television and music. It's a common talking point here as Japan needs something to revive its flagging economy. Anime and video games are still seen as something of an embarrassment in terms of cultural exports, at least by the older lawmakers.

He was talking about Japanese entertainers. The biggest stars in the Japanese music, television and film industries are not very well known outside of Japan.