ohtani's jacket

I don't see how Becky Lynch was a bigger draw than the Beauty Pair or the Crush Gals. The latter weren't just draws, they were phenomenons. I'm sure Lynch does well in whatever metrics are used to judge wrestling draws these days, but the Beauty Pair and the Crush Gals weren't just wrestling draws, they were entertainment/show business stars. Now, admittedly, the show business world is a lot smaller in Japan, but they were still on television and in the media *all the time* on TV commercials, television dramas, variety shows, interview and news shows, music shows, etc. Does Becky Lynch have anywhere near that level of celebrity? The Matsunagas business model was never designed to draw big houses. Their number one priority was show business. After that, their focus was on running as many shows around the country as possible within a single year. Eventually, they were able to run Budokan, and later on, they ran bigger venues during the inter-promotional era (to determinantal effect for the most part.) If the metric for a draw during the Crush Gals run was the most number of 10,000 houses drawn, then they probably didn't qualify for top 10, but you'd be hard pressed to find 10 more famous wrestlers in Japan at the time, and frankly the world-wide competition for being a draw in the 80s was significantly higher than in the modern era where other a handful of companies draw. I get the need for Becky Lynch advocacy, but I think you can do that without trying to draw a straight line from Burke to Lynch while downplaying the drawing power of the Joshi stars in relation to WWE's global stranglehold on the business.

I made it to issue #50 of my re-read of Nexus. I don't know if I'd call Mike Baron the best plotter in terms of story development, but it was impressive for any indie title in the 80s to reach 50 issues (if you, in fact, consider First Comics an indie publisher.) Paul Smith may be the best guest penciller of all-time. He's so good that he can replace Steve Rude on pencils and the quality doesn't drop a smidge... Well, that is until Rude comes back and you remember how freaking amazing Steve Rude is. Elfquest had almost lost me with the long and drawn out Kings of the Broken Wheel, but the final two issues of that limited series were really good, and then the decision to go with color for Hidden Years was a revelation. The first four issues of that series contain some of Pini's most beautiful artwork, as well as some wonderful, self-contained stories. Unfortunately, this is the era where Elfquest splintered into separate titles, and Pini hands the creative duties to other people. That's a shame as I kind of like her short stories better than her drawn out epics. I finished reading First Comics' reprinting of Lone Wolf and Cub, which ended 45 issues into a projected 110 issue run. There was no fanfare or goodbye, but it's weird, even though it was a reprint of a comic from the 70s, it felt like the end of an era as the title was synonymous with 80s independent publishing and it truly felt lie that era was over by '91. At some point, I will have to pick up the rest of the series, but it's not a series that you necessarily have to finish to appreciate. I absolutely loved Sock Monkey! That is my kind of comic. So charming and inventive. Almost as good as Frank.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Blousons Noirs (Manuel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) (aired 9/6/66) This is the quintessential French tag. It would have bee nice to see a longer heat segment from the Blouson Noirs, but the Ben Chemoul/Bordes tandem was the most pure distillery of French Catch you're likely to see. Ben Chemoul excelled at two things -- hot tags and cocky babyface wrestling. Given that I hate cocky babyfaces, it's no surprise that I can't stand Ben Chemoul. Daniel Boucard vs. Francis Ragot (Le Legionnaire) (aired 9/20/66) This was a total surprise. Ragot was a tall, lanky worker who looked like he had no business being in the ring, and at first glance this seemed like it was going to be a loose mess, but man, these guys could scrap. And they stayed on each other the entire bout. I totally overlooked this when I devoured the archives the first time, as I kind of figured Le Legionnaire would be some kind of crappy gimmick and Boucard wasn't on my radar. One of the most pleasant discoveries from the archive. Robert Gastel vs. Lino Di Santo (aired 10/9/66) This was dull. I like both these guys, and I was keen as shit to see a great Robert Gastel performance from the 60s, but this was a slow, plodding affair that never got out of second gear. Le Vicomte Joel de de Noirbreuil & Pierre Lagache vs. Abraham Edery & Georges Cohen (aired 10/16/66) This was a match that could have taken place any night of the week in Paris, but it was highly entertaining largely because Georges Cohen is lowkey one of the best babyfaces in the archives. The heels were nondescript here. With a name like Le Vicomte Joel de de Noirbreuil, you'd expect something a little flamboyant, but nope, it was all black tights and standard heel work, but Cohen was good enough to carry the entire bout by himself. I wish enough people watched French Catch to make controversial statements about it, so I'll put one out there. Georges Cohen > Rene Ben Chemoul. There, I said it.

Roy McClarity vs. Al Korman Tony Marino vs Great Zabio I'm a big fan of 50s wrestling but even I have to admit that it gets a bit samey at times with the heel/face antics. But, that's what the public paid to see. Interesting to see that Buffalo had already devised the 10 minute television match. These bouts feel extremely short by 50s standards. That may be a good thing depending on your point of view as there's plenty of action and movement. I really like the way they put over submission finisher holds. Watch how long it takes Korman to recover from the cobra clutch hold in the McClarity match. Marino vs. Zabio was uploaded a hundred years ago, but it's a fun look at a pretty unique beatnik gimmick. I wish Zabio had done a bit more with the gimmick in-ring, as it was mostly the commentator putting it over. Marino working over the fingers so Zabio wouldn't be able to play the piano afterwards was a nice touch.

I haven't been keeping track of Super Dragon, largely because I can't get my head around the gimmick, but I really liked his performance here. Grimes was a big, burly fella, who didn't have great timing but was committed to the match. Dragon bumped his ass off for him all over the garage. I liked the change of pace from a typical Dragon match and enjoyed watching him deliver a different type of performance. The finish was bullshit, but the key point here was Dragon playing pinball to a big man.

Wasn't sure what we were in store for here. It was either going to be a waste of Benoit's talents, a classic Benoit carry job, or an overrated Benoit carry job. The verdict? Pretty good. Benoit worked from underneath and bled hard way from the mouth. A-Train was okay. He was a bit too methodical at times, but he hit Benoit with some good looking shit, and I liked the wrinkle of A-Train having a counter for the german suplex and the crossface. There was a blown spot where A-Train was supposed to gorilla press Benoit onto a chair that looked scarier, and nastier, than the planned spot would have. Benoit won with a sharpshooter, which was fitting as it was a very Bret-like performance. Stu had died a few days earlier, so I guess it was a tribute spot. The Baltimore crowd was one of the best WWE crowds of the year. I usually bitch about how this could have been a TV match, but it entertained me.

Just wanna point out that the Choshu match isn't new footage. Fujinami vs. Angel Blanco and Satoru Sayama/Gran Hamada vs. Ray Mendoza/Reino Guarjardo were also taped from the same show.

Given the short turnaround time on this Tarzan Boy/Shocker feud, and the confusion over whether Shocker is a tecnico, rudo, a rudo that gets cheered, or just guapo, I thought this was a good match. This wasn't a lot of focus on Tarzan Boy and Shocker until the end where they brawled a couple of times. Instead, the focus was on the other guys, which was actually kind of fun. Especially, Ultimo vs. Magica. I'm a big fan of Magica as a Guapo, but he didn't get many chances to shine after they began pairing Shocker with Vampiro. Here, he held his own against Ultimo, and it was cool to watch. Terrible looked better than he has in any of his previous Guapos matches. I'm not sure if that's because he's growing into the role or because the Guerreros are the best foils in lucha, but he also held his own. There was another screwy finish, which led to the apuestas challenge. Screwy finishes are the greatest reason to have a hair match, but at least Shocker and Tarzan Boy have good chemistry. Hopefully, they get enough time to work a compelling match.

This was a 16-man Leyenda de Azul cibernetico that set up the Tarzan Boy vs Shocker hair match. It was clipped to shit, and the version I saw was an official CMLL release which meant they cut out all the parts with Wagner and Vampiro, but like most ciberneticos, there were several points of interest. Panther was in great shape. He looked slimmer than recent years. It made me wish CMLL was doing something with him, but that shit will drive you crazy when you watch lucha. Shocker worked tecnico, which didn't make much sense, but he had a throwback exchange with Niebla and wrestled all three of the GdI. Shocker vs. Ultimo drew a pop, as it should. Takemura was a livewire. Pierroth and Rey Bucanero had a fun exchange that you'll probably only see in a cibernetico like this. The finish was naff, but you have to set up a hair match somehow. The Cubs Fan saw a different version back in the day that showed the Vampiro and Wagner moments, but the CMLL edit was longer.

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.