ohtani's jacket

El Hijo del Santo vs. Blue Panther, University of Essex, 10/8/04 Y'know when see a band play and the second night is better than the first? Didn't happen here. This was a mess of the highest order. The ring set-up meant that they couldn't dive into the crowd, so they threw in an "over the top" rule as a means of beating your opponent. In the first match, Santo tossed in a dive whenever he needed a highspot; here they tried eliminating each other. That's a fucked situation. If you can't dive, and you can't use the ropes, you grapple, right? When Santo was asked what London could expect from Lucha Libre, he answered: "You will see a contact sport but a great part of it is close to art. This is because in lucha we wrestle close to the canvas where you will see a lot of movement with ‘castigos’, holds and locks, it becomes harmonious and this beautiful skill converts into art." Whoever came up with the "Battle Royal" idea didn't have much faith in the art of lucha libre. Then again, neither did the workers. Santo dominated this match for long stretches at a time, but it wasn't what you'd call lucha matwork. He worked from dominant clinch positions, such as a front headlock or waistlock. Now I like matwork, but those are stationary holds. The longer you keep them applied, the longer you're stalling for time. There wasn't a lot of movement from Panther and not a lot of countering. Not once was there a flurry of holds, a rolling bump, or even a proper submission. I realise they had a turd for a ring, but these guys are supposed to be maestros: two of the greatest mat workers of all time. If this was your first time to see Panther, you'd have to wonder what the fuss was all about. Without the two-out-of-three falls format, they couldn't find a rhythm. Santo kept going back to clinch positions and there wasn't a whole lot going on. Far be it from me to suggest the Emperor had no clothes, but it certainly seemed that way. The other day I watched a UWA trios where Casas was running around like madman, pulling some guy's hat over his eyes. Santo was so pissed that he started brawling with Casas on the outside, and while all this was happening, Solar was leading a green as shit Dr. Wagner Jr. through classic lucha exchanges. Yeah, they were working in the trios format, and yeah, they had the benefit of shortened falls, but this UK match was dead. They didn't vary the pace enough and there was no energy to the performance. The final stanza was a disaster. Their timing was awful and they blew an extraordinary number of spots. Hell, even the spots they made they had no business doing in a third caida. I can't understand what Santo and Panther were thinking here. These appearances were organised by a University, an Arts Council and the Mexican Embassy, which ought to have given them a license to wrestle any way they liked. This was a chance for Panther and Santo to show us lucha the way it ought to be; the way it's meant to be. The way they're always telling us it should be wrestled. Forget these matches ever happened. If you want the real thing, I recommend their matches from Monterrey.

Are you voting in the Smarkschoice poll, Loss?

Tony and Jesse were brilliant together. In fact, Tony smoked Jim Ross in the early 90s. I dunno what happened to Heenan in WCW. It was as if he stopped being funny. I don't think it helped that he came on board at the same time that Hogan and Flair were feuding, but says a lot about his chemistry with Monsoon that his whole shtick fell on its ass in WCW. I'll tell you who's a shitty commentator and that's Akira Fukuzawa. Think clueless colour guy.

Atlantis vs. El Faraón, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, 3/22/85 A villainous El Faraón! I hadn't seen Faraón's rudo work, in fact I've never really seen him in his prime. He was a hell of a vet during the Dandy run, but this was another echelon altogether. I've always put a great deal of importance in how a guy moves in the ring, since I don't think it's something that can be taught. You can change the way you bump and sell, but movement can only really be aided by the right body position. Faraón was tall for a luchador (5'11") and his shoulders were slightly hunched, which made him seem slower than he really was. Watch how he trapped Atlantis in this match. Atlantis couldn't match Faraón for strength, so his aim was to avoid the lock-up. He was probably expecting Faraón to have a clumbersome first step, but Faraón swooped in, using the full length of his reach to overpower Atlantis to the mat. Once they were on the mat, they did a fall's worth of wristlock work. Faraón showed great agility with his reversals, but technique is for the birds. If Faraón had continued to dominate the matwork like he was capable of, it would've made a mockery of Atlantis' standing as middleweight champ, so little by little he gave away the ascendency. He did this by gradually selling pain, until he had an excuse to opt out of the matwork. Most workers ditch matwork in favour of the ropes, but Faraón didn't just settle for a pin fall. No sir. He used the ropes to dismantle his opponent. Atlantis became his whipping boy, literally. It was fantastic stuff from the rudo, because it was rough-housing, and the crowd knew it. He tread the thinnest of lines between legitimate strength and unsportsmanlike behaviour, which would've been perfect if Atlantis hadn't sold with all the enthusiasm of an amateur. His theatrics didn't hurt the match; Faraón had provided too excellent a platform for that. Instead, it was one of those WTF moments that leave you thinking, "shit, he was only 22!" Actually, Atlantis' age played something of a part in this match. Faraón won the first fall by submission, but held on for longer than necessary to rub in his gamesmanship. Faraón knew he was on to a good thing and began measuring Atlantis with short arm lariats. A few of them slipped too high and the crowd ripped into him for ungentlemanly conduct. Like a rudo great, Faraón protested that he was being villified. The ref started to issue a stern warning, but Atlantis was pissed. He tore into Faraón with an armbreaker, which Faraón sold in Murdochian fashion. It was impetuous stuff from the technico and hardly becoming of a middleweight champion. Faraón made sure the heat stayed on him, however, by rolling under the ropes. There's no time outs in wrestling! Jim Ross tells us that ad nauseam. Faraón was more brazen with his lariats after that and his selling was brilliant. Watch how he sells Atlantis' backbreaker. The cry he lets out gives you a full sense of how much weight Atlantis lifted. This seemed to exorcise the bloodlust from the technico, and once he got his revenged, he settled into more of a composed game plan. He tried to get the jump on Faraón in the third fall by flying at him with topes. This was a clever ploy from Atlantis, who realised he had to do something to negate Faraón's reach, but the rudo was too quick footed and soon he was on the offensive. Faraón began picking his opponent apart piece by piece, which is not that common a style for a luchador. It's not often that they work as methodically as Faraón did here. The problem was that Atlantis was still too green to edge ahead with more dazzling technique. Relatively speaking, he was the same as a 22 year-old middleweight in a modern lucha match. There was no way he was the "best in his class" at this point in time; he was a popular young technico holding one of the middleweight straps as part of his push. To "beat" an opponent like Faraón, you have to make it seem like you can actually beat him. Faraón jobbed for Atlantis here. It was plain to see and for that reason the third fall was flatter than I would've liked. There was some king sized selling from Faraón, who took each dive like the walls of Jerusalem were falling down, but the finish was a surprise rana, which was straight out of the playbook in 1985. I loved the Flair-like selling at the end, though, with Faraón scrambling and falling on his ass. More Faraón, please!

El Hijo del Santo vs. Blue Panther, Colchester Arts Centre, 10/06/04 This was first of two matches Panther and Santo worked in England, as part of an exhibition of prints by Mexican artist Demián Flores Cortés. 'Flores Cortés' work, which is inspired by Mexican pop culture and in particular lucha libre, was described by the Gallery Director as "full of the raw energy, movement, and the staged drama of the wrestling world." Santo and Panther were invited to "animate" that work and did so in front of a packed Arts Centre. Can you imagine Panther and Santo coming to your town? Me neither, but I've gotta tell you -- it wasn't that good. I won't beat around the bush here. I was expecting them to work like maestros, and in a way, I was hoping for something to remember Panther by. He doesn't have a lot of great singles matches and this had to be one. But instead of them working like maestros, we got a "lucha" exhibition with Panther working rudo. Lucha is never really lucha when you take it out of Mexico, for the simple reason that the fans view it as a work. We've all seen Mexican fans who were caught up the drama and allowed themselves to be worked; women who chastised rudos, men who were escorted back to their seats, rudos who were so hated they had to be out of their mind to incite the fans further. What ends up happening in a match like this is that Panther becomes the worker "in the corner of the bad guy" and Santo becomes the worker "in the corner of the good guys." The crowd cheer the technico on, urging him to take over and run through his offence. Usually, but the crowd know it's a work and keep on with their rallying cries. It's difficult to take heat away from the technico, because there's never any sense of the laws that govern lucha libre. Never any sense that the rudo has caused an indignity and that the technico must defend his honour. The rudo winds up being the token villain "in the corner of the bad guy." No one gets worked and no one gets suckered in. I have no interest in a match where the workers chase pops, which is why I would've preferred a straight technico contest. The only way to get around the "rudo problem" on an exhibition match is to go the London/Delaware route and work in a charismatic manner. There's no point trying to fool a crowd who know it's a work, so you might as well be self-referential and have some fun with it. The catch with that is that Panther's not a charismatic worker. The only charisma he's ever had is that he's Blue Panther, which to us means he's a maestro. His approach here was to work stiffer than usual, but the ref didn't admonish him enough, and Santo showed him up by throwing better punches. The end result was that he played second fiddle. That's surprising for pros like Santo and Panther, but a lot of these issues stemmed from the match structure. For some reason, they chose to work the match as a single fall over 30 minutes, which surprised me, since anyone who's ever watched All Star Promotions would be familar with a rounds system and a strong heel/face dynamic for that matter. They also tried working the same shifts in momentum that you'd find in a two-out-of-three falls match, but without the overlapping falls it's difficult to create the same sense of rhythm. The ring was too small to use the ropes like they usually would, so Santo tended to throw in a signature dive when he might usually do a rope exchange, and while it was cool to see him hit topes and planchas in such a confined area, they occurred at the most inopportune times. This did give us the chance to see the "real" Santo, however. I call this Santo the "UWA" Santo, because aside from the summer of '97 he never wrestled this way on TV, which makes me wonder why people care about him making TV appearances at all. His matwork was nothing you haven't seen before, but as usual it was his execution that stood out. Sims describes lucha as "the age-old fight between good and evil", where "good tries to overcome evil by superior work rate and abilities", and since there can be no greater technico than the son of the most famous luchador, this has always been an area where Santo Jr. has strived for perfection. In that sense, the hero's welcome he received in Colchester was fitting; it's just a shame that they forgot about the rudo's role in all this. Watch the "second caida" that wasn't and you'll see what I mean. The second caida is where the rudo begins to pummel the technico. If the technico's smart, he sells it like he's down and out. If the rudo's smart, he plots his own demise through pride or through avarice. Santo and Panther botched a surfboard and Panther laid in a stiff kick that was more of a slap on the thigh. This led to a brawling that was about as effective as the last time I watched CMLL television. If I were to sum up my disappointment with the match, I'd say it lacked the "raw energy, movement, and the staged drama of the wrestling world." It seemed like the print version to me. It has to be said that the crowd loved the match. They really did. It was a rare opportunity to see lucha libre workers in the flesh and there was a chant of "Santo! Santo! Santo!" from a kid who couldn't have been older than four or five. It may have come across better live than it did on tape or perhaps I'm living in an ivory tower of Satanico matches and Negro Navarro matwork. If I ever have a kid, I'm taking him to a show before the magic wears off.

Satanico vs. Lizmark, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 4/84 With both these guys retiring on the Luchas 2000 show, I thought I'd pay tribute to two of my all-time favourite workers. This isn't a great match, and to be honest, I wish it had been much better, but it's as close as we'll ever get to the heart of the Lizmark/Satanico rivalry. There's a moment towards the beginning of the match that sets the tone for everything that follows. The ref is giving his instructions to Lizmark and has to call Satanico over to listen. Satanico is as cool as ever, nodding and gesturing that it's fine, but he's somewhat bemused as the ref continues to explain. Suddenly, he gets this glint in his eye and grins at the pair of them. The ref brings them together for a handshake, but Lizmark gets the brush off. That may seem like a minor detail, trivial even, but Lizmark looked foolish and it was a high class insult. Watching that moment, it struck me that no-one could outperform Satanico. There's not too many workers you can say that about, but it's true. He was impossible to outperform. I've seen dozens of Satanico matches and the psychology is always the same. He had a bag of tricks he liked to use; brushing off the handshake was one of them, losing his temper was another. But no matter how many times he did them, it never came across as stage craft. He was this supremely confident, supremely arrogant guy, who was quick to anger and prone to tantrums. A lot of guys have played rudo and played it well, but Satanico was a natural. He was also a fairly demanding worker, who expected guys to work at his level, and nowhere was this more true than in title matches. Steve Sims describes the lucha title match style as "almost always a technical-style match, putting over the championship, where both men wrestle as cleanly as they can to see which is the more deserving of being 'best in his class.'" There's more to it than that, but if you look at the middleweight title histories from this era, you can see that only the most capable of middleweights held the straps. Satanico's credentials as a middleweight champion don't need any introduction, but I think a lot of people are unaware of how good Lizmark truly was. Unfortunately, only two of their matches exist on tape; this one from '84 and a later one from AAA. Neither of them are classics, which doesn't help my cause very much. It could be that they were too good for each other as opponents, or it could simply be that their best matches are lost, but nevertheless this '84 match pits arguably the best rudo worker in Mexico against the best technico worker. The first caida is beautiful, with Satanico wrenching on a side headlock and Lizmark looking for a submission straight away. This was a return match, and either Satanico had done something illegal to win the title in December or he'd been baiting Lizmark in trios, because the technico was unusually aggressive here. They needled each other on the first break and it seemed like there was more to it than the brush off. Satanico lost his cool the way he always does, by being outwrestled and outgrappled. What I love about these temper spots is that Satanico always responds with such authority; this time with a series of throws. He landed a single leg takedown, but was too caught up with swatting away Lizmark's free leg and ended up having the hold reversed. It was one of those cases where the reversal is more painful than the original hold, and as you'd expect, that's how Satanico sold it. Watch the way that Lizmark springs into position. He was such a fluid wrestler in his prime. Just beautiful technique. The armlock reversals to end this exchange are incredible. One of my favourite Satanico tricks is when he'd appeal to the ref for help. Rudos usually wrestle a title match cleanly. They may wrestle aggressively, they may push the boundaries and be cautioned by the ref, but by and large they adhere to the rules. Foul play is rare and disqualifications even rarer. Occasionally they cheat to win, but the goal is to outwrestle the so-called "technico" with technical wrestling, thus proving their superiority. This was particularly true in Satanico's case, since he was a supremely talented wrestler who believed he was a supremely talented wrestler, but whenever he was down on points, he'd start reminding the ref of the rules and the sanctity of a title match. The same rules he didn't want to listen to at the outset. It was always a sign that he was getting his ass kicked and boy was that the case here. Satanico didn't have an answer for Lizmark in this fall. Lizmark wrapped things up with a double underhook suplay, which is about as definitive a throw as it gets. What strikes me as odd about this match is how aggressive Lizmark is in the second fall. Satanico is still feeling the effects of the suplay and doesn't want to lock-up. Lizmark is so pumped up, so aggravated that he launches an all out attack on the head and neck area that not even the crowd are sure about. I can only imagine that Satanico had done something to Lizmark at some point, because it's not the type of behaviour befitting of a technico in a sanctioned title match. It was, however, a sight to behold. Things get even stranger with Lizmark refusing to break and targeting the eye area. Satanico is unable to mount any sort of a comeback and Lizmark ends up piledriving him not once but twice. Just deserts for the diabolical one? It's not a turn of any sort, but it's not exactly premeditated either. And it's tough for the ref to officiate on. The fall ends with a rather weak Satanico counter, where he falls backwards clutching his head. I dunno where that caida came from, because Satanico didn't put up a fight at all. The third fall followed more traditional lines with both guys hanging on for dear life. The highlight of the fall was Satanico charging at Lizmark only for the technico to step aside and send him hurling through the ropes. He crashed into the padding, and by the time he looked up, Lizmark was already halfway through a spectacular Plancha Suicida. No-one has ever done that move better. He was an amazingly flexible guy and you could see that in the way he'd contort his body on the mat. It was sudden death after that, and to be frank, the offence was poor. This was a revancha match that didn't bring with it any revenge and ended in a double pin. Satanico retained the title and had a hell of a sore neck for his efforts, but Lizmark lost his way in the final fall and didn't deserve the win. That's OK in legit sports, but in a worked sport, as lucha libre title matches present themselves, it's pretty average when you compare it with something like Satanico/Gran Cochisse or even Zatura/Trauma II from a few weeks ago. We'll never know whether Satanico vs. Lizmark ever lived up its billing, but there was enough quality here to suggest that they were pound-for-pound the best in this or any other weight class. But can anybody explain the story to me?

Just watched this and it's not their 12/83 match. Satanico is already the champion heading into this match.

Zatura vs. Trauma II, IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship, 6/18/09 Somehow we ended up skipping an episode of IWRG. It must've been an eventful one, since this week was all about singles matches and recriminations. I haven't been as high on Trauma II as other people who watch and write about IWRG on a weekly basis, but I figured this match would showcase one way or another whether the kid's any good. And I'll say it up front -- the kid blew me away. There were a few things they could've done better, but I feel churlish just typing that. This was an excellent title match for this type of weight class. None of the criticisms I've had of Trauma II as a submission grappler applied here. Both guys were quick with their takedowns and there was enough movement on the mat that it seemed like they were going for a straight pinfall submission with every hold. I've mentioned before that Trauma II ain't no chip off the old block, but judging by his strikes, I've been far too harsh on the kid. I guess I've been beating the drum too hard, because Trauma wasn't alone in impressing me. A few weeks ago, Zatura showed he could hang with Cerebro Negro and here he took that one step further with some nice counter wrestling to take the first fall. He opened up the second caida working from the top and it was a nicely weighted fall. It's not very often that the second fall is a turning point in a lucha title match, but it was very much the case here. Both of these guys came into the match with taped shoulders, but Trauma was the first to aggravate his injury when Zatura caught him with the counter submission. And he made no bones about going after the arm in round two. That rocked me a bit, as I didn't know he had it in him. Previously, he'd seemed like a guy who could only grapple from the defensive position, but he scored an early takedown here and was Satanico-like in seizing control. So often these guys relinquish holds and give up position, but there was nothing easy here. Trauma had to fight every inch of the way to get an early break and slumped into his corner clutching his shoulder. What followed was a piece of grappling that was well beyond Trauma's years. Realising he had a bum shoulder, he opted to attack off the ropes and did the most spectacular leg takedown into a shoulder submission. It was a fantastic move that really underlined his championship credentials. Having saved match point, we headed into a third and deciding fall with both guys looking like they belonged in a lucha libre title match. Trauma's selling was fantastic throughout and even Zatura's dives seemed nastier than usual. I loved the spot where they started throwing body punches and Zatura drove him into the mat with a double leg takedown. I guess the highest compliment I can pay a match like this is that even though I knew the result beforehand, I was genuinely excited by the outcome. It's rare for young guys to pull off this kind of finish. They timed it to perfection and the finish came on exactly the right beat. I would've never picked these guys to have a match this good. I dunno if it's a sign of things to come, but I sure as hell sat up and took notice. Probably the most positive and exciting thing to happen in Mexico all year. On a parting note, Trauma's outfit was class. I swear it made him look like a better worker. I can't really justify that comment, but as a wrestling fan, you know it makes a difference.

I glanced over the second part of his obit and it seemed OK to me. I wasn't really following whether he told Misawa's early career accurately or not. There were a few parts where he got his wires crossed or assumed a few things that weren't exactly true, but I can't imagine anybody doing a better job in a week's turnaround.

Arena Puebla 6/15/09 Ares, Espíritu Maligno, Siki Osama vs. Black Tiger, Blue Center, Centella de Oro This was the Puebla boys at their best. The opening matwork wasn't just good by Puebla standards, it was arguably the best matwork to come out of Mexico this year, but what really made the match were the follow-up falls. Usually, the Puebla guys lose their way after the first caida, but here the rudos did a good job of pushing the action. They kept changing the point of attack, which kept things interesting and went a long way toward maintaining a rhythm. The finishes were ambitious and didn't flow all that well, but it was cool to see them grandstanding. If not for the ending, it would've been the best of the local trios matches, but it was a bit of a swing and miss. The rudos almost had the technicos on the rack, and it was very nearly last ditch stuff, but they couldn't pull it off. They went for the three-pronged dive attack and it was all a bit uncoordinated. Nevertheless, it was more of a ride than most Puebla openers. Blue Center came up limping, which put a cool spin on the usual post match celebrations. I dug how they chased the rudos out of town. Endings are tough to do. We see that all the time in Westerns and in comic books, but the local matches are always about the thought outstripping the execution and this was just behind the two other Puebla trios I've pimped. Tzuki, Bam Bam, Pequino Olímpico vs. Pequino Universo 2000, Pequino Black Warrior, Pierrothito I was under the impression that this was the best minis trios since Bracito De Oro/Cicloncito Ramirez/Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero/El Fierito/Pierrothito, and while it was heading that way with the early matwork, it wasn't meant to be. It was a good match, and I'd definitely like to see the minis as a regular fixture on Puebla cards, but the technicos couldn't match the rudos' performance here. It was fantastic stuff from the rudo mini veterans, Universo 2000 and Pierrothito; the kind of rudo beatdown you don't see much of any more, even from good workers. I won't win any points with Rob here, but I thought Tzuki dragged this down with his performance. Bam Bam carried his side somewhat with some pretty slick rope work, but this was a night where the rudos outclassed the technicos and left me wondering where the heroes have gone. Rudos should lay down the groundwork, but there's not enough technique on the technico sides these days.

CMLL en la ARENA PUEBLA 6/1/09 Siki Osama, Espíritu Maligno VS Iron, Blue Center Espíritu Maligno and Siki Osama! I like both these guys, so I got a kick out of this. The first caida had a real old school feel to it. Blue Center is such a classical thinker. He may not have the athleticism of a Lizmark or Solar, but he thinks like a technico and has all the right ideas. There were a lot of neat exchanges in the first fall and they were nicely spaced; the way lucha used to be before it lost its sense of fun and adventure. Espíritu Maligno continues to be the incarnation of Espectro Jr and his ilk and Siki Osama is probably my favourite big man at the moment. I adore everything about him from his gimmick and ring attire to the way he works. I was impressed with his matwork here. For a big guy, I thought he did a superb job of leading from the top. The rest of the match wasn't that crash hot, but my boys won. For some reason, I've been on a Jack Kirby kick lately, and I dunno if it's because of all the primary colours, but the Puebla locals have a real Kirby feel to them. Lucha libre isn't really a style, and it's wrong to say there's only one way of doing it; but the more it looks like a Jack Kirby splash page, the more I dig it. IWRG 6/4/09 Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro VS Trauma I, Trauma II, Zatura I dug the Traumas' hoodies here, as well as the Cerebros' matching tights. They also posed in their masks, which was pretty cool. This was another vaguely interesting IWRG trios. It started off with some stalling from Cerebro Negro, before a mat sequence where he really put the brakes on Zatura. That's something we haven't seen for a while and was somewhat refreshing. Trauma II and the Doc followed that up with some submission grappling. It wasn't the prettiest of matwork, but they managed to stay on the mat and keep the breaks to a minimum. Next up were Terry and Trauma I, which presented an interesting mismatch. Terry took over in the maestro role and it was a return to the more pain inducing holds of recent months. Trauma I, who's being made out as bruiser, caught Terry in a leg lock and there was a fantastic reaction shot from Dr. Cerebro. The move spelled trouble and sure enough the technicos took the first fall. Terry spent the rest of the match looking to get even and he did something of a number on the Trauma's arm. Trauma basically fought with one arm the rest of the way and was almost too consistent with his selling. I'm not sure if he tweaked something, but he hasn't been a noted seller to date. Cerebro Negro, on the other hand, did appear to tweak his neck from a Trauma II hold. He was attended to by the ring doctor while guys stood around brawling, and the match pretty much lost its shape, which must be the upteenth time I've written that about an IWRG trios. Anyway, the upshot of all this to-ing and fro-ing was some miscommunication between the technicos and Zatura copped an earful afterwards. I'm starting to lose track of all the beefs in IWRG and God knows if any of them will ever be resolved. If the Trauma arm mangling was an angle, I'm assuming the return of Poppa Bear can't be too far off, but the tag against the Guerreras was on the show after this, so stay tuned kiddies!

There's been plenty of Japanese wrestlers who took heed of medical advice and retired from injuries. Misawa's case is specific to Misawa. This mindset you're talking about is nowhere near as prevalent as you think and certainly not what has come out of this.

People don't survive the type of injuries Misawa sustained. The mortality rate is essentially 100%. It was a miracle that Christopher Reeve survived his accident. It was no secret that Misawa was in bad shape. He wanted to retire and confided with various people that his health was bad. None of those wrestlers Dave mentioned had the pressures that Misawa did as shacho. I'm not trying to defend Misawa one way or the other, but there's nothing essentially "Japanese" about what Misawa did or didn't do.

Would make more sense to kayfabe a heart attack than a severed spinal cord.

Fuerza Chicana, Mr. Rafaga, Sauron vs Asturiano, Centella de Oro, Tigre Rojo, Arena Puebla, 5/25/09 Ah, the Puebla locals. What I like about these guys is that they come in all shapes and sizes. A real mix of odds and ends. Centella de Oro was the only worker here, but there was no shirking from the match-ups and no hiding in the trios. They all took their turn here and were all rolling with an 80s bent. It was standard fare from these guys, but more praise worthy than anything from last week. IWRG 5/28 Angelico, Chico Che, Freelance vs. Capitan Muerte, Durango Kid, Tetsuya Bushi This was an abomination of a match, but Freelance is on a tear right now. Valiente's been earning the plaudits, but Freelance is taking them back. The pleasing thing about this run is that he's cut back on the number of dives. Watch his exchange with Capitan Muerte and you'll see where he's improving. If I had my way, Freelance would blow up into something huge in Mexico. Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro vs. Trauma I, Trauma II, Zatura, IWRG Intercontinental Trios Championship This started off with a lengthy mat sequence between Trauma II and Oficial 911, with every exchange ending in a submission attempt. They weren't bad holds, but the set-up was poor. They released holds, gave up position and were far too slow. When it was over, Trauma fronted him, but the Oficial hadn't been anywhere near aggressive enough for that to be the story. I kinda dig Trauma II as a skinny guy who's dangerous from the guard position, but if they go down that route there needs to be better takedown work from 911. In came Trauma II, who was looking to establish himself as the enforcer, but again the execution was poor. The Oficiales took over, and as with much of their wrestling this year, they were short of ideas. They kinda pulled it together in the end and Zatura did a cool dive, but it was a pretty average effort. I'm not sure what's happened to them this year, but they've gone right off the boil. The Traumas are kids and you expect them to struggle , but what's up with the Oficiales?

Was anyone over enough in '94 to force a change of plans? Was the WWF even booked like that? I wish someone had spared us Diesel's run.

Whoah, Owen wasn't over in '94? That's news to me.

The best time to push Owen would've been during the Black Hart return, but we all know what happened there. The only other time would've been during 1994, but we know all about that too. After '98 and '99, I don't see Owen sticking with the company let alone winning one of the two world titles. There was always Scoop level talk about Owen getting a run against Austin, but when you really think about it, they couldn't even book the Ministry of Darkness or Hit and Run Driver to be a compelling opponent for Austin. I do wonder whether he could've stuck around in a Finlay type role or whether he'd have gone to TNA.

I wouldn't say I was embarrassed at being a pro-wrestling fan, it's just a pain in the ass explaining to people how you know Japanese wrestlers from the 70s and 80s and leads to all sorts of questions like: "is Japanese wrestling famous in your country?" My wife has a co-worker who's a big New Japan fan and he keeps trying to give me merchandise I don't want. Somehow he got her hooked on Tanahashi and she keeps bringing home pro-wrestling magazines despite having no interest in his work. The only guy I ever watched wrestling with, I haven't seen for three years, so that's definitely a factor; but with others hobbies, I'll check the internet to figure out which movie to watch next or what album to buy, but I don't feel the urge to discuss these things. There's something about wrestling that makes it just as satisfying to discuss as it is to watch; perhaps moreso. The only other topic I devote as much time to is rugby. I guess this goes back to when I first got the internet. The first thing I looked for was wrestling news and I suppose the habit grew from there. Jose and I went to a bar once and had to explain how we knew each other. That was kinda surreal.

Mike Quackenbush/Kendo/Solar v Negro Navarro/Mr. Ferrari/Claudio Castegnoli, Invasion Azteca, 3/08/09 Well, for the second year running, it looks like my match of the year will come from outside Mexico. Perhaps this wouldn't have been a MOTY in years gone by, but these days you have to search every nook and cranny. It's a bit like diggin' in the crates. I won't deny that finding lucha in Delaware is half the fun, but the important thing is that it was lucha through and through. There's a certain aesthetic that says this match is cool: the crowd, the building, the colour of the mat, two all-time greats in a scaled back trios. But I'll tell you what this match had: it had charisma. If I were to describe trios wrestling, I'd say it's one or two good workers, a guy with some shtick and a couple of apron warmers. The workers do the bulk of the wrestling, the comedy guy does his schtick and the apron warmers pick their spots. These days it doesn't take much imagination to work a trios match. The only guys who do it well are the Puebla locals, but here you had Navarro/Solar, Navarro/Quackenbush, a little bit of comedy and a bunch of guys working around the edges. So when I'm talking about charisma, I'm talking about that real shit from back in the day. You had three guys nowhere near the level of the others and the match was better for it. Watching Navarro here, I had no doubts I was watching an all-time great worker. How many wrestlers revent themselves at Navarro's age? How many guys are better in their early 50s than they were in their youth? And how many guys get better year after year from the age of 45? It just doesn't happen. I thought Solar had one of his better outings in recent times, but I'd go so far as to say this is THE Negro Navarro match: the match that encapsulates why he's the man right now. I don't think I've ever seen Solar and Navarro go at each other like this, with amazingly quick go-behinds and strong takedowns. but what really impressed me was Navarro and Quackenbush. Quackenbush doesn't look like much of a wrestler, but in the past six months I've seen him wrestle Johnny Saint, Cassandro and Negro Navarro, and I've gotta give the guy his dues. Navarro was lording it here, trashing talking in Spanish throughout their exchanges; but every time Quackenbush hooked a limb, he did not disappoint. In all honesty, he was one of the better sparring partners Navarro's had. I don't know how he did it, but he did it and fair play to him. So what you had was a bit of clowning around, some killer match-ups and an awesome setting. What more could you ask for? The imperfections are what really made it: the scrappy finishes, the ref's mistakes, the looseness at times. You know they're working when they're ad-libbing comedy between matwork. You can't do that without some personality and a whole lot of confidence in your mat skills. Navarro's takedowns are like Ray Mendoza's. Everytime he slams someone to the mat, you expect him to come back up with his arm raised. He's a killer. I don't think anyone could take him in a fight. But he's seen it all, done it all and has a sense of humour about it. A lot of indie matches strike me as the sincerest form of flattery, but this was the real deal. Hell, Solar even sold the low blow like a pro. He was stretching that thing at the end and there was no aggravating it. What a champ.

This comment from Death From Above got me thinking in tangets: Wrestling, and more specifically writing about it, have always been hobbies for most people. Despite a few people making careers out of it or securing book deals, wrestling criticism has never been pursued as seriously as film criticism, music criticism or sports journalism. That's understandable given the sheer scale of those entertainment forms, but while I was thinking about this, I couldn't shake the feeling that wrestling isn't as worthy a subject as film, music, sport or literature. So, I started thinking about whether I actually like wrestling as much as film or music or rugby, basketball and tennis. My first thought was that all of those things are immediately and inherently superior to pro-wrestling, but then I started wondering why I've spent twenty or more years watching wrestling and why I spend a part of everyday reading up about it or watching matches. I've had other hobbies over the years that have fallen by the wayside, yet when my wife tells people I like wrestling, I always try and downplay it. I'm assuming that everyone here has other hobbies, in fact I'm familiar with some of them from other boards. So my question is: How highly do you regard wrestling in regard to your other hobbies, and if it doesn't rate highly, do you think you spend a disproportionate amount of time on it?

Not much, I suppose.

Someone posted a random link to some "greatest tag matches ever" article on 411 and I was amazed by how generic the choices were. Even in this age of downloads and filesharing, shit still doesn't fall that far from the tree.

Blue Panther vs. Averno, CMLL World Middleweight Championship, 5/29/09 (clipped) This was a difficult match to judge since it was clipped, but it made me wanna throw in the towel. The opening matwork was there or thereabouts, with Panther making it look more spectacular than it really was. Averno is an average worker, but he at least brought his A game and Panther has enough credibility to work an opening caida along traditional lines. The third fall is where my apathy grew, especially when they reprised that shitty mask match from last year. Where others see Panther cutting this sympathetic figure, I just see a guy who can't salvage the third caida. What's the point of going for three topes if they're not sold? Why can't they space their moves properly? The Chicana/Aguayo topes put this shit to shame. This is what lucha has become: shit basically. I've tried finding new ways to enjoy it, but it's a losing battle. When you have one of the most respected workers of the past 30 years towing the company line, it's a difficult pill to swallow. I'll say this much -- it was better than the Mistico/Casas matches and probably better than Averno/Santo from 2004, but still not enough. The decade's almost over and there's no relief in sight. The 2010s are gonna be bad.