ohtani's jacket

Joe delivers a thoughtful promo before the bout, but he doesn't have a great voice. Dominant performance from Joe up until the noose spot. He wipes the mat with Homicide. Homicide does one spectacular tope con hilo spot that has Julius Smoke sprinting around the ring, but for the most part it's all Joe. That should have been a giveaway re: the finish, but it still took me by surprise. Homicide's my boy, so it was all good. Love Julius going mental over the win.

The buildup to this match was juvenile, but the match itself isn't bad. They drag things out a bit and burn out the crowd, but that's largely because Cena isn't very good at working on top. Things pick up again when they kick out of each other's finishers, and deliver a decisive finish that protects Angle while making Cena look strong (imagine that.) Smartly worked match that played to Cena's strengths. It was nice to see Angle working a different style of match, and also nice to see the WWE produce a successful midcard bout. It would have been interesting to see these guys square off after Cena took off.

This had 15 minutes of introductions at the start and another five minutes of promos at the end, which is ridiculous. These guys are similar workers, though I'd argue that Corino is better. Unfortunately, like vs. like didn't really produce anything special here. There's too much Punk on these recent ROH shows. He's okay against guys like Joe and Styles, but he's not really a good enough worker to hold his own, and he's starting to wear out his welcome with this straight edge shit.

This was typical Lesnar vs. Taker goodness until the stupid run-ins ruined it. At least they led to a hellacious tope from Taker. Vince was ridiculously jacked. The biggest problem with the match is that no-one got to use the chain. They should have made it a regular chain match instead of doing the flagpole gimmick. Still, can't complain about those soupbones. Taker is legit one of the best guys to watch from the WWE in 2003.

This was better than expected but still a goofy fight. Kawada's selling sucked. I guess I was wrong thinking he had potential to work worked shoots. Perhaps that Albright match was a fluke. I've pretty much given up on expecting anything good from Kawada at this point. He had some good matches in the 00s with Tenryu and Mutoh, but he's half the worker he was in his prime.

I don't know how much of this is must-see, but some matches to consider: Barry Windham vs Brian Pillman (WCW Pro 04/06/91) Barry Windham vs Brian Pillman Taped Fist Superbrawl 5/19/91 Rick Rude v Brian Pillman (Pro, 2/15/92) Rick Rude v Dustin Rhodes (Worldwide, 5/30/92) Arn Anderson vs. Barry Windham 06/06/1992 Rick Rude vs. Dustin Rhodes (5/15/93) Arn Anderson vs Steven Regal (WCW SuperBrawl IV 02/20/94) Steven Regal vs Larry Zbyszko (WCW Saturday Night 05/28/94) The Regal/Zbyszko match was my favorite discovery of the last WCW poll I was involved in. If you go down the TV route, there are plenty more recommendations.

Xenozoic Tales is a terrific series that ends mid-story arc with issue 14. Interestingly, the issues were released so far apart that you get a clear sense of the growth and development of Mark Schultz as an artist from '86 through to '96. He's released other projects since then, which I'll be sure to check out at some stage. Every once and a while, there's a tease that he'll finish the arc from issue 14 but nothing's ever come of it. It joins the pile with other great unfinished series like Tyrant and Vagabond. After the 80s black and white boom ended, Shultz only released one or two issues per year, but even at that slow pace, the book was constantly among the Eisner nominations and Shultz was highly regarded in the industry. That reputation has faded over time, but if you're interested in what the early 90s comic book landscape looked like, Xenozoic Tales was a release, along with From Hell and several others, that people eagerly anticipated. It's not entirely original, as a lot of people were doing riffs on similar ideas, but if you like dystopian sci-fi, it's a neat series.

I finished Kings in Disguise. The Great Depression is a topic that hadn't been covered in comics very often. The author, Jim Vance, was a playwright, who was adamant that this story could only be told as a comic. This was right around the time when all those articles began to appear about how comics weren't just for kids anymore, and you can feel that type of energy and enthusiasm in the book as the creators attempt to unlock the potential of comics as a storytelling medium. Kings in Disguise wasn't as influential as Maus, but it was part of the same movement that led to the rise of graphic novels, and inspired cartoonists to envision stories in different genres, which honestly speaking, is something that needed to happen if comics were going to continue to develop as an artform. I'm not sure why the series isn't as well known as other books from the era. It didn't sell particularly well, but it was critically acclaimed and drew high praise from the likes of Alan Moore, Wil Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman and Art Spiegelman. I'd never heard of it until I started this thread. Even as a kid, I was aware of the graphic novel books in my local comic store -- the Sandman books, Cerebus, Maus, Love and Rockets, etc. -- but I don't recall ever seeing Kings in Disguise. At first, I thought it might be because the art isn't quite as strong as some of those books. In fact, it's quite of striking when the early issues have covers done by some of the more popular independent artists of the day. However, the art grew on me when I read a letter from Mike Baron that pointed out the EC comics influence in the panel layout. Burr isn't as good as the EC guys, who were master cartoonists, but the EC style grid is a nice fit for the story and suits the tone of a period piece. I believe Vance and Burr published a sequel to the story decades later. The American had a lot of potential as an ongoing series, and then it ended abruptly, mid-storyline, which was the fate of a lot of intriguing indies during the boom and bust cycle. I'm not sure if the later mini-series picks up where the ongoing series left off, but after reading a handful of cancelled Eisner nominee/winners, I have a new found respect for creators who managed to somehow complete their series. Comics should be fun, and I had a blast reading Charles Burns' Hard-Boiled Defective Stories, Batman Adventures: Mad Love, and the short-lived, but delightful, Tantalizing Tales. Hard-Boiled Defective Stories was an attempt to cash in on the success of Maus by publishing Burns' short stories as a graphic album and sticking them in book stores. Unfortunately, for the other creators, Maus was the only book that sold, but the mix of pro-wrestling and weird pulp fiction/film noir stories was right up my alley. Mad Love was by far the best of the Batman related Eisner nominees I read. The other books were good, but Mad Love was a joy, and surprisingly dark at times. I absolutely adore Jim Woodring's Frank stories, but I also loved the issue of Tantalizing Tales that had Gerald Jablonski's Farmer Ned strips. Those were brilliant. Personally, I thought Bratpack was Rick Veitch's strongest work up until that point, even if it was a spiteful attack on DC and kind of nasty in that respect, but the ending was a massive letdown. He didn't stick the landing whatsoever. Fantastic art, though.

I think this was Perro Jr's debut at Arena Mexico as Perro Snr was on hand to give him some rub. What a breath of fresh air Perro Jr was. Fun match that showed how great Damian and Halloween were as "glue men." Halloween, in particular, is really great at this stage of his career. Super Crazy has been a bust in CMLL, but Niebla was more inspired than usual, and an inspired Niebla adds more to a trios match than just about any other tecnico outside of Santo, Casas or Atlantis. I'm looking forward to more Perro Jr.

This was pretty weak, as you can imagine. They would have been better of doing a straight trios match. There was a lot of meandering about with no one really knowing how to work a cage match. It was obvious that it would come down to El Terrible vs Bestia since the pair of them had the longest hair. Bestia couldn't really work a dramatic final stanza despite his years of experience. CMLL are trying really hard to get El Terrible over. It's not working with me.

This was probably the best trios match of the year so far. It was by no means a classic lucha libre trios match, but it had some snappy workrate, and how often do you get to see Bobby Quance work with Virus? If Ricky Marvin hadn't been so subdued, this might have been off the chain.

This was okay, but they went for more of a story match than their initial meeting, which was pure technique. I can understand why they wanted to tell a story, but from a purely selfish point of view, I would have rather seen them work a pure technical bout. For one thing, the whole "heart and soul" of Rey Mysterio thing kind of works better against a bigger opponent than Tajiri, and it gets a bit boring seeing Mysterio work injured all the time. I'm pretty sure these guys would've stood out more being lightning quick, but I guess the road agent had different ideas. Can't think of any great cruiserweight matches that were a prolonged beatdown followed by a comeback, though.

Punk's straight edge gimmick is annoying. Yeah, it's designed to be annoying, but it's more of a roll-of-the-eyes heat than any kind of brilliant heel shtick. As far as his work goes, he's not as bad as the people who hate his guts make out, but he's clearly not as good as someone like AJ Styles. In fact, it's pretty much a textbook example of how to hang with a better worker. The trouble is that it's just another match. In the first year of ROH, every match came across as a blockbuster. You were getting indie dream matches on every card. Now you're getting matches. This needed at least another 10 minutes, a stronger finishing stretch, and no Samoa Joe cameo on commentary, to come remotely close to anything from ROH Year One. I don't know what the ceiling was on Punk vs .Styles matches, but I'd like to think it's higher than this.

That started in 1990 when he was a member of the Diet. He was giving a lecture at a university prep school and was involved in some kind of stunt where a prep school student punched Inoki in the abdomen as hard as he could. The student was a Shorinji Kempo practitioner and must have hit Inoki pretty hard because the slap was a reflex action. The student immediately bowed and thanked Inoki for the slap. It was caught on camera and was broadcast nationally. After that, students preparing for the University of Tokyo entrance exam asked to be slapped and they all passed. That's how the Fighting Spirit slap became a thing.

Inoki had been sick for a while, but it was a shock when they brought him out on TV recently in a wheelchair. People have been overlooking what a carny he was, and the batshit insane things he did, but it was a life well lived.

Yukon Eric vs. Baron Gattoni I don't think this is a new match, but it hasn't been on the internet for a while. Easily the most entertaining Yukon Eric bout we have on tape. It wasn't your typical run-of-the-mill 50s match. It was far more hectic and used plenty of smoke and mirror tricks, but I enjoyed the change of pace. Short and sweet.

Finlay vs. St. Clair (CWA Bremen´94 - Chain match) This was okay, but you don't get the violence that you want from a chain match. It's closer to a WWE cage match than those gruesome 80s German handhelds. I guess the CWA wasn't a very violent promotion, but I can't imagine too many people watching this and not wishing that Finlay had used the chain a bit more.

This was so uninspired. You look at the listing and think, "Ugh, three way match." Then you watch it and think, "Ugh, three way match." JR was strangely subdued in this match. I don't know if he was trying to sell the gravity of Kane sending Shane McMahon to the hospital, or he was meant to be nervous about his upcoming tag match against Al Snow and Jonathan Coachman, OR because he was still recovering from Kane setting on fire, but he seemed bored. So you've got a bored Jim Ross commentating over a boring match that barely rises above the level of a television match. I didn't realize that 2003 WWE was this meh. Such stupid booking. If they had ran the Christian vs. RVD ladder match on this PPV, the effect would have been much greater. Avoid this. Nothing interesting happens in this match.

I finished Mark Waid's first run on The Flash. It was okay, but it was full of generic superhero stories. I don't see why it's considered a landmark run. I guess Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs' runs may be considered weird to some folks, but to me, they were far more brilliant. There were some positives to Waid's run. He was good at multi-part storylines, and he did a lot of nice stuff with Wally and Linda. To his credit, his writing was solid enough that it didn't really matter when the art was subpar, but I don't get what the big deal was, other than the fact that it was long. Perhaps the appeal is that it was a solid superhero run in a decade not known for its solid superhero runs, but you'd think it was the equivalent to Peter David's Hulk run the way some people go on about it. I guess other folks are way more into the Speed Force thing than I was. I must really like Wally West, though, as I intend to keep going through the Morrison and Millar run and back to Waid, and maybe even Johns.

I finished Chew over the weekend. It took me a while to get used to the art, but once I did, I was in for a ride. What a weird and wonderful series. It was batshit insane but strangely moving. And always entertaining. Thanks for the memories, Chew!

It's been a while since we've seen Los Talibanes on TV. This was part of a three-week build to a cage match. I always have time for Los Talibanes, even when their matches are shit, but they brought their working boots here. Talibanes vs. Halloween and Damian is always good, but they also managed to make Terrible look more interesting than he has in any other bout simply by beating him up. Gotta love a trio of old-school rudos.

Heat is shit kid Minoru Tanka doing a masked luchador gimmick, wearing some ridiculous get-up that would have looked better on his wife. He had no idea how to work like a luchador, and it shows. It doesn't really matter since they had plenty of experience working together in New Japan, and the Arena Mexico is 100% behind Dr Wagner as the Mexican representative in the bout, but it's not much of a lucha bout. They tease a big submission finish, since apparently Tanaka made Wagner submit the week before, but this time Wagner manages to break the hold. He doesn't sell it particularly well since it's not a common lucha trope, but it pops the crowd. I could do without these sort of matches, but I could see a certain type of fan thinking this was a better match than usual.

This was only a tournament match, but it was spirited. And we got to see Satanico vs. Shocker! Forget the Japanese guys and the Tijuana Family, the 2003 Satanico feud you needed to see was Satanico vs Shocker. The only drawback here was El Terrible, who still doesn't look like he belongs on the Guapos. I'm telling you, it should have been Zumbido.

I did not know that the Sexy Boy wrestled Randy Orton on PPV in 2003. The reason I didn't know is because the match is instantly forgettable. Orton was being pushed as the future of the company while Cena was barely holding onto his career with his Thuganomics gimmick, but for whatever reason, Michaels barely lifted a finger to help him. It was the most generic TV match imaginable on a RAW PPV. Orton wasn't a very good worker at this stage, but everybody involved could have tried a little harder.

This was the most generic of their matches together, but there were a few positives. Brock finally wrestled like the piece of shit that abused Zach Gowen, Spanky and Stephanie, and they peppered the match with enough falls that they avoided the problems Shawn and Bret had. They also avoided the temptation of a cheap finish. In fact, it was a bold decision to have the challenger go over. Brock's tactics meant that we never got to see any wrestling between the two, but the match was never boring. Just generic. I'm not entirely sure why Brock has such a cult following. I like the guy, but there was nothing outstanding about his performance in the match. I still think he's better off brawling with Big Show and the Undertaker than wrestling Kurt Angle.