ohtani's jacket

Love you work, Marty, but you'll never convince me that Murakami and Ogawa are any good.

The build up to this match was so weak that even the highlights package is second rate. They should have ran this at Survivor Series to give Orton more time to adjust to working face. He doesn't have a likeable persona. He's still the smug jerk who spits in other wrestlers' faces and brags about his accomplishments. The only thing he has going for him is the RKO, which they were banking on getting over the Stone Cold Stunner. In fact, the part where Orton takes on Evolution and RKOs everyone was reminiscent of Austin during the Attitude Era. The match s slow. There are some decent moments early on,, but it becomes a grind once Triple H starts doing his cerebral assassin shit. I don't mind Triple H matches, but there's nothing compelling about this particular match up. Triple H blades, but the blood adds nothing to the match. Orton is screwed over in his very first PPV defence, and you have to wonder if some of JR's disgust is legit. This felt like a momentum killer. There's a chance that RAW will nose dive now that Hunter is on top again

JR kept mentioning that this was the season premiere of RAW, which doesn't really matter much when you don't have an off-season. Triple H has won the belt back in a match I haven't watched yet, so this is a revenge bout. There's a weird dynamic where they decide to write Orton out of most of the bout after Batista cops him with a lariat and have Benoit and Benjamin garner most of the heat. Benoit vs Flair is worth the price of admission, but they do a shitty job of telegraphing Randy's return and JR oversells the RKO like it's the Stone Cold Stunner. Babyface Randy is pretty weak at this point.

This was a weird bout as there was a lot of great wrestling mixed with house show bullshit and the finish was shit. Cole and Taz are supremely annoying. Angle is a wrestling machine anc could probably wipe the mat with Eddie if he wanted to. I thought this was an Angle vs Eddie match that I liked until the bullshit began.

Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 5/4/81) This is a match that has never really clicked with me, but at least Slaughter gets his moment in the sun with the huge bladejob and wobbly feet selling. It's kind of weird, but I totally buy Dusty in these types of matches but I don't buy Pat Patterson in a street fight.

It's 11 years later, and German wrestling is still incomprehensible to me. It's hard enough to make sense of the handheld footage and clipping let alone understand the context of matches. There are some good matches, but it's frustrating.

I don't have the answers to your questions, but I can tell you that Phil was able to match listings for the television broadcasts from old newspapers, IIRC, so the info about TV channel switches may attainable somehow.

Bob Backlund vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 3/21/81) Full disclosure -- I grew up on WWF cage matches. I like WWF cage matches. I have zero problems with WWF cage match rules. I find cage matches from other territories to be vastly overrated and have greater respect for promotions like AJW who adopted the WWF cage match style instead. That said, this is nothing like your typical WWF cage match. This is Bob Backlund kicking Sgt. Slaughter's ass inside a cage for 17 minutes straight. Backlund is such an oddball. Even Bruno didn't dominate his opponents this much. The match isn't bad per se, but it doesn't maximize the dramatic potential of a WWF cage match. I assume there were other blowoff matches like this whenever Backlund went around the horn, but it doesn't make for a great one off viewing experience. Especially since Sarge is such a good worker. It would be nice to see him actually do something. Matches like this are the reason Bobby is still a bit divisive, I suspect.

I don't hate everything about Kawada. I just have little use for him after '97-98 unless he's having matches against Tenryu, Mutoh, and possibly in MUGA against Nishimura. .

Mascara Sagrada? Jesus, they're bringing everybody back. Sagrada looks... fat. CMLL was preempted for a few weeks in August because of the Olympics. Unlike last time when we missed out on a Dr. Wagner vs. Casas program, I don't think we missed out on anything earthshattering. Luckily, there's plenty of footage available from this 8/13 show. This was the show that was originally thought to have been unaired, but which Phil Schneider found being bootlegged outside Arena Mexico. I don't know if the rest of the show is new footage or not, but it's kind of rare to get so much footage from a single CMLL show, so perhaps it aired in some fashion over the Olympics break. This was an out and out crowd pleaser. There was a bit too much KeMonito, but I did like his schtick with Garza. There was a lot to enjoy about this trios match. Casas and Tarzan Boy went back and forth. I always enjoy it when two guys who were in an apuesta feud acknowledge that they still hate each other's guts. I like the burgeoning Shocker vs. Garza feud as well. Terrible looked wild and is clearly looking for a hair match pay day. Fun way to pass the time.

This was really good. In many ways, it was better than Tamura vs Ito. I would say it definitely had better matwork whereas Tamura vs Ito had the better striking. I guess it helped that it was the main event of this Osaka show whereas Tamura pulled double duty on the next show. Mishima could be a goofy bugger at times, but in a lovable sort of way. Tamura isn't exactly saving our souls with U-Style, but it at least adds some variety to the dull Japanese scene.

This seemed like it would be a great little shoot style bout, but it ended up being a whole bunch of nothing . I can't take Shibata seriously with that goofy stance of his and his stupid facial expressions, and I am done with Minoru Suzuki. Hard pass.

I am really down on Kawada at the moment. I want him to disappear and take Minoru Suzuki with him. I am high on the immortal Tenzan and Randy Orton, though I think Triple H is about to fuck him up.

This was such a beautiful match. It wasn't just the CMLL match of the year, but one of the best matches from anywhere in the world in 2004. The reason for this wasn't because it was a classic Santo performance (although it was), but because it was easily the best Perro Jr performance to date and the first time he's truly looked like his father. The non-finish may bother some, but you have to remember that this was just a mano a mano bout. There's no reason on earth why it should have been these good other than they wanted to honor their fathers by having a match worthy of the famous bout their padres had. The other defining aspect of this bout is that's proof that an old-school lucha bout can get over with the Arena Mexico crowd. They worked a decidedly non-2004 match in front of the Arena Mexico faithful, but had them hooked. This might be one of my favorite lucha matches of all-time. It's definitely the best mano a mano bout I've seen. If you don't want to see these two square off again after watching this then you should probably consult your local GP.

No mention of Kent Walton!

Bruno Sammartino vs. Superstar Billy Graham (WWWF, 4/30/77) Bruno vs. Graham is one of the best matchups in WWE history. I wouldn't have said that prior to Graham's death, but I'm in full agreement with elliott about this. This wasn't their best match together, but it did show more of Bruno's technical side, and while he won't go down in history as one of the great mat workers, he was competent enough. Superstar was fantastic during this period. I always bought into the accepted wisdom about Superstar, or rather, I never had a reason to give a shit about him until people opened my eyes to his WWWF run. The amount of bumping and stooging he does is surprising, and his selling is excellent. There's still a bunch of old-school types who think he never bumped or did much of anything. Those people need to be converted one by one. The better bouts in this feud are when Bruno is chasing Graham, but this is an important chapter in their feud so you best not skip it.

This was an excellent match for the most part. It's not a huge surprise, to me, that Tanahashi became a star as I thought his performance here was better than in the final. The only issue I had with the match was the finish. I don't believe for a second that Sasaki couldn't kick out of that. They should have continued for a few more beats. Tanahashi's crappy celebration didn't help matters, either. That's not how you sell that type of pinfall.

This match was kind of stupid, I thought. It was cool when they were railing on each other, but the rest of the match was meandering and the stuff with the ref was Monterrey-esque.

I keep telling myself I should watch more Chris Hero, but I don't think this was the right place to start. The camerawork was poor and it didn't seem like Hero and Styles were giving it their all. Hero's so tall that he can have problems working small at times, and doesn't have great big man offense either. I could be wrong, but it looked like he was still finding himself at this point. Styles was okay, but not up to his usual standards.

Bob Backlund vs Pat Patterson (WWF, 7/30/79) Backlund sure doesn't mind beating the shit out of a heel. It's an admirable quality in a way as most babyfaces are too soft to beat on a guy. It doesn't make for the best match, though. This bout is exponentially better once Patterson takes over and gets really good once both guys are buggered. I don't think Patterson is a great worker, but he's very good at the nitty gritty stuff and excels at putting over pain and fatigue. They do this really odd finish where Arnold Skaaland hits Patterson with the belt only for the bout to end in a double knockout. Backlund does do this incredibly goofy looking sit up to try to beat the count, but the ref counts 10 anyway.

I had no idea that New Japan pushed a young Tanahashi all to the way to the G1 Final. This doesn't feel like a marque match up, but you know Japanese crowds love an underdog. Tanahashi's already pretty good at this point, but it's Tenzan that does the heavy lifting to ensure that this is a worth final. How about that Tenzan, huh? Didn't know you had it in you. It's amazing to me that both Kojima and Tenzan have managed to find success as singles wrestlers despite the crappy state of the business. This was an exciting match. I absolutely loved the dragon sleeper vs anaconda vice battle. The finish was awesome. Hail, Tenzan!

Game, set, and match, Alcarez.

Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine (WWF, 3/26/79) Man, I love Greg Valentine. There are very few wrestlers I love more than the Hammer. Backlund's an acquired taste, but I don't think he gets the credit he deserves for the sheer volume of good matches he had in the WWF. Yeah, he had the ideal stage for it with main events at MSG, but listen to the heat he gets. Don't let anyone ever fool you that Backlund wasn't over in New York. This is a slow match, so much so that there's a fan heckling them about it, but when the highspots come they send a roar through the Garden. Very good match from one of my favorite old-school WWF matchups.

I was never an Otsuka guy, but it's fun seeing him square off against Tamura. It's a shame it's so one-sided, but Tamura had a clear advantage with his stand up game. Would have liked a bit more matwork.

I'm not really sold on U-Style being high end shoot style, or 2000s Tamura being a great worker, but I haven't watched a ton of shoot style over the past several years and I feel out of sync with it these days. That said, this was an exciting fight with some great knockdown sequences. Should have been the final.