ohtani's jacket

El Dandy vs. Javier Cruz, hair vs. hair, 10/26/84 This was just a bad match. Way too much offence for a hair match and not enough selling. That should come as no surprise. Dandy was only 22 here and Cruz 25. Collectively, they didn't know shit yet. It kind of reminded me of Kiyoshi Tamura's early fights, where he's all limbs and no control. Sadly, we'll probably never seen their '86 feud and won't be able to pinpoint when Dandy entered his prime or if Cruz was ever a good singles worker. Felino vs. Pantera, CMLL World Welterweight Championship, 12/27/94 I like Felino, I really do, but this was a piss poor performance with the most atrocious matwork I've seen in a lucha title match. In lucha, there's certain things you accept -- the first two falls are academic: the loser of the first fall will win the next and winning is as easy as a few simple moves. After awhile, you take it for granted. Occasionally, you're surprised. But they've got to be good, even if you're half stepping. 90s Felino had the same workrate tendencies as a Chris Benoit or Eddy Guerrero, but here, in a lucha title match, the only matwork was a foul. Pantera's not the most impressive worker, probably serviceable at best, but all he could do was sell and Felino gave him fuck all to work with. The third fall had multiple dives, but who gives a shit after being short changed? This was disturbingly close to modern CMLL. They should've nipped it in the bud in 1994. Apolo Dantes vs. Miguel Pérez Jr., hair vs. hair, 10/13/95 This wasn't a bad match per se, but it was excessive and once again there were too many moves for a hair match. This was rudo contra rudo and Mexico contra Pérez; a revenge match for Pérez taking Silver King's hair (in another workrate hair match.) Pérez was one of the better workers to come through Mexico in the 90s; perhaps the best, unless I'm forgetting someone obvious. He's a guy who could clearly brawl, but he also had a lot of spots, and I mean a lot of spots. In 1995, if there were two guys who could work the semi-universal 'Best of the Super Juniors' style, Apolo Dantes and Silver King were those guys., so it's no surprise that they booked these matches, and the publico absolutely LOVED it. The third fall went on too long for mine, but there were all sorts of crowd shots (shot from a classic documentary angle), and while those inserts are easy to manipulate the assorted reactions were the most interesting thing about the match. Especially the guy with a hook for an arm. Hair matches should always be brawls in my view, but if you're a Dantes fan this was a solid performance.

What I meant is that it's difficult to have an original take on the match.

That may be true, but it's difficult to have an original opinion about that Misawa/Kawada match. I don't think basing your opinion on what other people say is a bad thing as such, the problem is when people feel the need to have the same opinion as others, as if they're getting "it" and others aren't.

I don't see what's wrong with basing your opinion on what others say.

Can F4W subscribers vote? How about people who only subscribe via the website?

IWRG 5/21/09 Freelance, Miss Gaviota & Diva Salvaje vs. Xibalba, Carta Brava & Avisman Usually I'd skip a match like this, since you have to sit through so much crap to get to the Freelance parts, but it was worth it this week. From the opening matwork with Avisman to all of his rope work and bumps, it was a really solid outing from the world's foremost technico. There were a few hiccups on the mat, but they worked through it and I liked how pissed Avisman was at himself. The exoticos tried hard, but they're not very good. The crowd seemed to enjoy their schtick, but I've seen better. One of the problems with Freelance is that despite being a great technico, there's really no-one for him to feud with. And since there's no rhyme nor reason to IWRG, he's stuck in these random trios matches. Negro Navarro, Durango Kid & Capitán Muerte vs. Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro, Cerebro Negro This was the match of the week. It started off with some solid matwork between Dr. Cerebro and Durango Kid and then Cerebro Negro and Capitán Muerte, before Terry and Navarro took over. Over the past few weeks, Terry's conceded that he can't beat Navarro on the mat, so Negro put him away in style. Nobody but nobody fucks with Navarro on the mat and Terry's selling was vintage as usual. The second fall was a nice change of pace. The Cerebros looked to push a three on two or three on one advantage for the quick fall, but Navarro's boys had a fall in hand, which led to some good exchanges. The third fall opened with more of the same, which made sense from the Cerebros' perspective, since they're the champs. They're making a push for trios of the year; in part because they're getting all the opportunities, but Navarro just can't be fucked with. He'd take on all three guys at once if he had to, and threw the best punch combos I've seen him do. The finish saw Terry faking a low blow and so it continues. You have to think Navarro is getting the belts. The question is who his partners will be. The matwork was considerably better without his kids involved, but I can't imagine them not being involved. Traumas I y II & Zatura vs. Oficiales AK-47, Fierro y 911 Crap. Gave up watching it. The Oficiales have been pretty average this year. CMLL Blue Panther, La Sombra & Volador Jr. vs El Averno, El Mephisto & Efesto, 5/22/09 I only watched this to see the Averno/Panther matwork, since I hear they're having a singles match soon. I approve of CMLL pushing Panther as an authentic lucha maestro and I also liked the Navarro style tights. Anything to move away from the image of a maskless Blue Panther. The matwork was good and their singles match should at least be as good as Panther's anniversary match last year, provided there's no bullshit. The rest of the match was a heated spotfest and of no interest to me.

Well, a fair number of those votes have to have been internet smarks who subscribe to the WON, otherwise I don't see how it gets into the top five. It took a long time for that show to be available on DVD, I figure most people downloaded it.

Purely Sexy. My personal feeling about the Panther/Villano match is that people wanted it to be a great match because it was Panther losing his mask.

Black Terry vs. Fantasma de la Ópera, IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Championship, 7/19/07 Black Terry is a guy who's more or less had a second career in IWRG, and you'd have to say 2007 was the peak of that career. He was tearing shit up in this feud. In one trios, they did a huge old school bladejob, where both guys worked the cut until Fantasma looked like something out of a Dario Argento film. Terry's brawling was fantastic. It wasn't the strikes or the DQ for excessive rudoing or even the way he put over Fantasma's headbutts, it was the way he sold the entire thing. The secret to wrestling is to be quick with your holds and not show any daylight, but Terry does more than that. He's one of those rare workers who seem to be "in character" the entire time, so that when the camera is fixed on him, it's almost like a character study. The other trios I watched was more notable for his matwork with Freelance, but he did show that you can beat up a guy like Multifacético and make it interesting, provided you treat him like a complete and utter whipping boy. I think it's fair to say that Terry has slipped in recent months, which is understandable given that he's entering his late 50s, but there were a number of other interesting contrasts between then and now. The crowds were much better then than the are now and the style was different too. This was a small scale title match, and I knew it wouldn't be some kind of epic due to the match length, but I figured that if the matwork was solid it would be pretty good. What I didn't expect is that Terry would work a style somewhat closer to his roots. There's been a tendency in recent IWRG matwork to isolate each hold and make them seem painful instead of showy, which is how lucha holds used to be, but here Terry worked some classic first caida matwork. And it was cool. Aside from the lower weight classes in World of Sport, where else can you see guys wrap each other up like this? Fantasma de la Ópera isn't the most mobile guy, and he's not particularly smooth either, but his ring sense is solid enough. He relies on the ropes a bit too much for my liking and his suplexes are wildly out of place, but he's earnest and Black Terry singles matches are rarer than hen's teeth, so I enjoyed this. The feud kinda devolved into RAW vs. Smackdown booking with a "fatal three-way" that had all sorts of questionable offence, but I like it whenever Terry goes "small", whether it's against Freelance, Turbo or in this case Fantasma.

I rented it from Champion. Jose tried to buy it off them, but they wouldn't sell it to him.

Yeah, that's the one.

I don't know anything about the build-up. I imagine it was the standard trios build-up, but the information's probably out there in Spanish somewhere. When the match first started circulating, people were more familiar with MS-1 than Chicana, because of the Infernales, but Chicana was actually the bigger star. He was a big stip match worker, who wrestled all the top guys in EMLL and UWA due to their working agreement. MS-1 had only lost his mask the year before and wouldn't form the Infernales until '84, so it's fair to say this feud made him. He'd go on to main event or semi main for another ten years or so. We can't be certain that this is the best wager match of the 80s, but from the lucha footage that exists, the only match that comes close is the Santo/Espanto Jr. mask match. The Dandy stip matches are a level down from that, though the Pirata Morgan hair match is excellent. The Estrada/Cruz match is popular in some circles, but I've always hated that match. Even though it was retroactively discussed, MS-1/Chicana set the standard for lucha stip matches. Lynch seemed to have the tape for a long time before people saw it, but I can't imagine anyone not using it as their frame of reference for wager matches.

Perro Aguayo vs. Sangre Chicana, 3/20/92 Ha, this was awesome! Easily the best Perro Aguayo match I've seen and probably the best thing Konnan's ever been involved in. There was so much bullshit going on in this match and it all worked beautifully. They couldn't have booked or executed it any better. It started off on the perfect note with Chicana beating Aguayo over the head with the charro hat he wore to the ring, and was filled with hokey shit from La Fiera, Konnan and the heel ref Gato Montini. Perro Aguayo has some of the deepest blade lines of any wrestler you'll ever see and it doesn't take much for him to bleed, but once it started flowing Chicana went into overdrive. He cleared some front row seats, stood up on them and dared the crowd to do something about it. They say Jake Roberts is a master of psychology, but I've got this little theory that Sangre Chicana is more Jake Roberts than Jake Roberts. Just fantastic shit. At one point, he was jawing with a technico fan and he was OUT OF HIS GODDAMN MIND. Konnan and Aguayo did this mindblowingly awesome spot where Konnan was willing Aguayo on, telling him to get up and jog it off, which he did. That was borderline Apollo Creed/Rocky Balboa stuff. Konnan ended up being escorted to the back for some reason and then Pena came out and personally removed Montini. He signaled a timeout and brought out this wiry old ref who was either badass or a cunt. Some fan tried to embrace him on his way to the ring and he gave him the big fuck off. The final flurry saw some awesome topes, with Chicana crumpled under the chairs and an awesome shot of La Fiera's smooth ass wrestling boots under his awesome civvies. The finish was glorious, as the old man came charging off the ropes and caught Chicana in a signature cradle. Aguayo ran around in a half circle and jumped up and down. Then he went and pat the head of the world's oldest living lucha libre fan, who was a little concerned when her program fell out of her lap. God bless you, honey. Just a marvelous piece of bullshit. Chicana is the king of doing nothing and getting heat for it. I'd put this in my top 10 for 1992, it was that entertaining.

Back to work for these guys. Oficiales 911, AK47 y Fierro vs. Zatura, Chico Ché & Freelance, 5/14/09 This is the first Oficiales match I've seen all year. A decent hit out, I suppose, but largely forgettable. It was the type of trios where they pause in the middle for the Freelance show; he hits a bunch of cool spots and then it's back to the same old, same old. The beatdowns were mildly interesting, but it's difficult to care about technicos like Zatura and Chico Ché. Fuerza Guerrera, Juventud Guerrera & Dr. Cerebro vs. Negro Navarro & Traumas I y II, 5/14/09 This began with some nice matwork between Fuerza and the Trauma kid who always starts off trios matches for Dinastía Navarro. It was low stakes stuff and very much the role the Trauma kid's been assigned to, but on the whole I thought they struck a better balance than Terry and the Navarro kid. Negro and Dr. Cerebro followed that up with an up tempo submission duel. Cerebro has a bunch of cool tricks in his holster and has been quietly having a great year. I thought he was the most consistent of the Terribles Cerebros in their pre-H1N1 feud; just a really good spot worker. One of my favourite things about trios wrestling is the number of directions a match can take, but it's always a little disappointing when they toss aside the matwork. This turned into a pier six, and while it was reasonably tidy, I stopped paying attention. For some reason, the Guerreras turned on Cerebro and Black Terry made an appearance. I guess the Cerebros and Guerreras will feud, though continuity has never been a strong point in lucha. Juventud's a guy I haven't seen wrestle in ten years. He looks like shit. Can't say I'm excited about him biding his time in IWRG. Solar vs. Negro Navarro, Campeonáto de las Américas, 5/16/09 Good, mat based title match that probably deserves another watch. I was distracted by my wife wanting to buy a house, but it looked as though there was no quarter asked and no quarter given. I had a problem with the rhythm, however. Title matches are always broken into three falls, but here they were clear "breaks" in the match. There wasn't much in the way of overlapping; they'd start again from the neutral position as though they were recycling the first fall. I need to watch it again to pick up on any shifts, but it seemed to me that this was straight up grappling with nothing much in the way of story. I've got no problems watching them grapple, but they seem to have an aversion towards real finishes, and as a result, it wasn't a step above their usual stuff. At this point, I'd say it's a better tag and trios match-up than a singles one. EDIT: Watched it again. The second fall was the best, which doesn't surprise me since it was Navarro's fall. There was some overlap between falls, and I liked that Solar had to become more physical to shake Negro, but the finish was weak. If you're serious about matwork, you should stay away from ropework and pins and earn the win the hard way.

I guess most wrestlers remember matches based on the heat or how they perceived it. Don't much care for the Jumbo argument one way or another, but I'd say he's pretty overrated at this point.

Speaking of Bret matches, I just watched the Bret/Austin match from South Africa. It's solid enough, kinda like a pre-cursor to their Survivor Series match. But it doesn't offer much proof that Bret could wrestle different kinds of matches or was the great storyteller that he's meant to be.

The flower ceremonies and trophy presentations are just part of the work. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say they pinched it from sump. At the end of every tournament, the sumo champion receives multiple trophies and prize money from sponsors. You sometimes see Japanese wrestlers get "prize money" in envelopes and those big fake checks from sponsors.

Strong style was a fighting style, not a booking style. It's not entirely wrong to call shoot style promotions "strong style," as that was the original intent of the UWF. You have to remember that New Japan is a company that had several different bookers over the years, whereas All Japan was consistently booked by Baba up until his death. The All Japan style that you're talking about was coined in the early 90s and was a stylistic shift away from what Baba felt he could no longer book (i.e. touring American champs, brawls and DQ finishes.) Obviously, there was an ideology behind the All Japan style, but it was prompted by a change in booking, whereas shoot style was purely ideological. Strong style was in part a con or a carnie thing, but the workers took it seriously, which is why you see pro-wrestlers trying to win MMA fights listing their background as pro-wrestling and not amateur wrestling. Japanese wrestlers have always been a little senstive about anyone who calls pro-wrestling fake.

Dandy/Faraon/Lizmark v Casas/Pierroth/Brazo de Oro, 6/22/92 Casas v. Dandy; whoever booked this feud had a rare stroke of genius. It only just occurred to me how early this was in Casas' run. By booking Dandy as his first opponent, it brought Dandy out of a slump and saw Casas leapfrog his way to the top. The booking itself was fairly simple. Casas and Dandy had a bunch of exchanges where neither guy came out on top, and therefore a singles match was a must; but it was remarkably well played by Casas. Just because you're two of the best, doesn't mean you have chemistry. With a guy like Satanico, there was always a hint that he was the superior worker in every feud he had, but Casas didn't mind if the other guy looked better. Skills wise, he and Dandy were evenly matched; and in fact it was Casas who pushed a lot of the action, but Dandy was content to kick back and ride out the early exchanges. If there was an opening, it was going to come later in the match, so he was prepared for that and was in no rush to pin back the shoulders. More often than not, it was Casas who resorted to a pushing and shoving contest, which, as Jose's little old ladies would tell you, was a sign that Casas felt more evenly matched than Dandy. As a competitor, Casas knew Dandy was good. As a rudo, his first instinct was that technicos are bullshit. The line he tread between competitiveness and his rudo instincts was really quite superb. He would've dearly loved to have beaten Dandy cleanly, but cheating was in his blood. It ran through his veins; he'd do it and pass the whole thing off as being the better worker anyway. What was cool about this trios, however, was that it was one of those nights where they get heat for the main guys, but the secondary guys step up and get even more heat, which means you save your main match-up for another bunch of trios. In this case, it was El Faraon who was all fired up and looking to hand Pierroth; and if you're familiar with Pierroth and Faraon, you'll know that's a very good thing. There was also a subplot about Brazo de Oro having respect for Dandy's abilities, which Pierroth thought was ridiculous, and it led to the rudos turning on him unceremoniously. Another cool touch was seeing Casas/Lizmark exchanges, which is the first time I've seen those guys work together. All these subplots and through-lines is what makes trios wrestling so great. Someone should put all these matches together and make a custom comp. There you go; there's an idea for somebody. Santo/Azteca/Muneco v Satanico/Parka/Psicosis, AAA 1994 RagingNoodles is the king of finding good AAA matches. Angel Azteca has always been a guy I've been fixated with, since in the earliest lucha I watched, they were really building him up as the next great technico, then suddenly -- POOF -- he was barely on TV anymore. If you watch all that TV from '89 and 1990, you'll wonder what the fuck happened to him. Here he is popping up in a '94 trios and he has an unbelievably great exchange with Satancio. Like all great lucha exchanges, it wasn't well worn spots, but creative and completely original stuff. The rest of the match was standard AAA fare, with up tempo rope work and a whole through-line about Tirantes not supporting the rudos, but it was never short of entertaining and I was amazed by how well Super Muneco hung with these guys. Unless he had a bloodbath in Monterrey or somewhere, he's pretty much useless, but he bobbed and weaved his way through this match and it was pat on the back stuff. Engendro v. Solar v. Negro Navarro, 12/13/08 These triangular matches are a little odd; they're basically one-on-one and you can tag out anytime you like, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but since this had a whole bunch of maestro matwork, it didn't really matter. The early exchanges between Navarro and Solar were the type of matwork that never gets old: it can never get old, since it's the single most skillful thing about professional wrestling. But you've seen it all before and read all about it -- the real story here was Engendro. Engendro's a weird looking guy. I can't figure out if he's the least looking guy to rule it on the mat, or the most likely. I suppose matwork was such a staple of Engendro's era that he was able to work his way through mat exchanges, even if he wasn't the most skillful guy. The Solar/Engendro exchanges in this were really great and the match-up was fresh. I was a little disappointed when Engrendo was the first to go, since Solar and Navarro are inexplicably poor at ending for their singles matches. This was no different, but the match was two thirds goodness.

Having a formula isn't something that's unique to wrestling. There's been plenty of film directors who've made the same film over and over again; musicians who've made the same album; actors who've given the same performance; and writers who've told the same story. It's not necessarily a bad thing. If you produce consistently great work, the critics tend to call it an oeuvre and get excited when they find a body of work that has strong, centralised themes running through it. Some artists are more experimental, but I don't think there's many people who enjoy every phase of Miles Davis' career, for example, and sometimes being eclectic just means you're a jack of all trades and a master of none, like the American film director Howard Hawks. In the case of Ric Flair, I think there's been a tendency among hardcore wrestling fans to seek out new things in recent years. The wrestlers who I've really explored in recent years have been Satanico, Fujiwara, Jim Breaks and a host of other old-school luchadores. For others it might be Memphis, Mid-South, Backlund, 80s WWF, whatever. There's been an inclination towards the "new", even if the new wrestling is in fact extremely old. What makes it exciting is that there hasn't been a lot written about that stuff. When I discover a new Satanico match or a new Jim Breaks match, it really is a discovery. Someone else may have unearthed the match, but few people will have written about it. It's not like when we were getting into All Japan and we had John's list as a sort of Bible to go by. And I guess in every hobby, people are always looking for new things to appreciate. I know I'm at the stage where I would rather watch a Hiroshi Shimizu or Heinosuke Gosho film than Ozu or Mizoguchi. So, in many ways, Ric Flair is "old hat." Everything that can be possibly written or said about Ric Flair has already been done, even if Loss and John's posts were excellent. Personally, I still enjoy a bit of Ric Flair every now and again, but the big thing for me is whether I find it cool. Up until a certain point, he is. I used to think '89-90 was the cut-off point, but going back and watching that stuff his face stuff in '89 kinda grates on my nerves and his heel turn is more or less the killer, aside from the stuff against Luger, which I enjoyed. The Memphis stuff with Lawler, on the other hand, was a blast. But the older he got, the less cool it became. Kinda like the type I went to see James Brown a few years before he died, compared to 1968 footage on youtube. (And I always thought the James Brown/Ric Flair comparison was a good one, aside from the soul/r&b transition into funk.) Most people's work declines with age, but the question for me is whether Flair could've had a different kind of phase or was he forever typecast as the Nature Boy? It's easy to say that Hogan had a different phase as a heel, because he was a babyface for so long. It's the same with Jumbo. His position slowly changed over the years and he moved with the times as his opponents got hot. But Flair flip-flopped so many times between heel and face and had commentators like JR say the same shit everytime, that I can't imagine a different sort of Nature Boy. A lot of heels in Flair's era were perfect gentlemen when they were faces and maniacs where they were heels, but Flair was always kinda Flair, whether you loved him for it or hated him for it. So, I'd argue that he typecast himself and eventually it became a kind of parody. As for the over-exposure issue, there may be some truth to it, but at the end of the day it depends how much you like a worker. People have set ideas about Flair like they do about many other workers. Let's take Toyota for example. There's a lot of set ideas about her that will never budge. A big Toyota fan could watch hundreds of her matches and probably find differences in her work, subtle or otherwise, but a person with set ideas about her is not going to watch hundreds of her matches. The thing about Flair's work is that it's never gonna change, because it was recorded a long time ago, so I dunno if there are any new ways of looking at Flair. You either think it's good or you don't. Even if you find different kinds of Ric Flair matches, how many are there? A dozen? More? Less? I'm sure that's enough to change the overall impression of Flair as a worker. It's like the different Bret Hart matches that are remarkably similar to other Bret Hart matches. It's not like you're gonna find a Flair match where he does quasi-shoot style matwork. But I agree that it's definitely less mysterious than old-school lucha or any other style that didn't have a lot taped. Perhaps the test will be whether John burns out on Backlund.

Mascarita Dorada vs Pequeño Damian 666, Lucha Fiesta, 3/20/09 I've never been a big fan of lucha in Japan, aside from the 70s when Baba would bring in guys like Mil Máscaras, Dos Caras and Dr. Wagner. The UWF stuff I could never get into. The crowds always felt the need to do something, whether it was booing or cheering, and the hardcores were more interested in the masks, which still fetch a price if they were actually worn. But I was surprised by how well this got over. I haven't seen anything from the minis this year, and only really watched this to see how Pequeño Damian is doing, but it was cool. It was the same length as a lightning match, and could've easily turned into a juniors style match, but Damian gave a really solid rudo performance and the response didn't sound canned at all. In fact, Damian jawing with a fan is probably the closest you'll get to a Japanese guy acting like a front row fan at Arena Mexico. And Dorada was outrageously good, pulling off all these awesome spots that make you say, "fuck the old school." Well, for five seconds anyway. But seriously, he was really good. He span like a record at the end and the crowd gave him plenty of coin. He came across like the miniture star that he's supposed to be, and Pequeño Damian might as well be Pequeño Virus the way he carries a Dorada through awesome exchanges. The different camera angles were cool too, especially the one that showed just how far Dorada leapt from the turnbuckle. It's pretty far when you're that small.

That was a great series and I imagine you could make a lot of stories out of it. One of them would be the overtimes, but overall it was about the defending champs without their pivot guy and a young team that was shooting the lights out, which you could pretty easily turn into a wrestling story. With All Japan, for example, the fans knew Misawa's character and they knew Kawada's character. Moreover, they knew the relationship between the two. So the moves had a lot of meaning outside of building to the finish and popping the crowd.

Valiente vs. Virus, Match Relámpago, 4/3/09 These two guys have gotta be the best workers in CMLL right now. I've been thinking lately about why their match-up is so good, and I wanna say that it's the old adage that styles make fights. Virus has bulked up a lot since he became a regular sized worker and likes to lead with the shoulder; Valiente prefers the armdrag. Virus uses his strength to lift guys off the mat; Valiente works counters and reversals. Virus is an excellent rudo foil; Valiente a beautiful high flyer. What makes it beautiful is that Valiente has the size to lay in the shots and Virus has the agility to match him hold for hold. It's like a "mini" version of Casas/Dandy in that they have the ability to mix it up any which way they like. I haven't seen two many Relámpago matches, so I don't know how you work a good one, but I figure you put some exchanges together and go for the win. I'm a little skeptical whether this type of match can ever be great, but they tried. I've seen them have better exchanges in trios matches, but trios matches are about pairing off and a cool spot like Virus' apron bump would see another pair take over. There's no time for resonance in this sort of match, so they kept at it. I'm not sure it swung in Virus' favour enough, but how to you stop Valiente right now? The man is hot. Since styles make fights, it would be interesting to see a return match between these guys. Lightning matches are probably the only way we'll see them go mano a mano, but it's what we've been begging for. I kinda doubt Virus could win without cheating, but Lord knows I wanna see how he'd counter him next time. Make it happen CMLL.

You can't tell a story like you usually would, but you can give it an arch. It's like a Laurel and Hardy film. At the beginning they're in a certain situation; they make a plan, a whole bunch of shit happens, and their situation changes. Laurel and Hardy never change, only their circumstances. Not too long ago, I was watching a Satanico match where his behaviour at the beginning was markedly different from his reaction at the end, because the circumstances had changed. You know in the next match he'll revert back to character, because he'll only change if they turn him technico, but you can make something of it. The bigger the arch, the greater the drama. I actually think lack of change is something that hurts a lot of wrestlers. There's been a lot of great performers in wrestling who haven't had great depth to their characters. And there's been others, who when their stock "story" does change, haven't been able to adapt. Very rarely do wrestlers change their archetype as they get older or have a character that's timeless. Obviously you can't expect a wrestler's character to change after every big match, but if you look at wrestling as a serialisation, there's more character development in most soap operas. It's not a criticism. They've gotta go out there and adlib something night after night for a different audience. It's a worked sport with a bunch of theatrics.