ohtani's jacket

If Yoshida hadn't moved to ARSION then I doubt she would have done shoot style. I can't imagine her having matches in '99-03 AJW as good as her matches against Yagi, Fukawa or Fuji, but it's possible. Perhaps she gets Momoe's spot and has some great matches.

What is Canek's best match? Is it the Caras match, a match against Fujinami, or something else?

Cinder and Ashe is another worthy Jose Luis García-Lopez side project from a time when DC was releasing a slew of mini series to the direct market. The artwork was nowhere near as gorgeous as Twilight, but it was a different genre. Conway has a reputation as a bit of a hack, but I thought he did a deft job of weaving together the narrative on this series, incorporating the use of numerous flashback devices to provide a backstory for the series while driving the central narrative forward. In fact, it felt more a leftover pitch from Conway's TV work than a regular comic script. The only fault I found with the series was the Master of Kung Fu style yellow coloring for Asian characters. I would have thought that was completely unnecessary in 1988.

This was a bit of a styles clash. You had Joe trying to match Williams for holds, which wasn't Joe's forte, and Williams trying to match Joe with forearm smashes. An interesting fight, but a bit clunky at times, and surprisingly short given how long most ROH matches are. They seemed to be putting Joe over as this dominant champ who chokes out opponents, but you'd think a promotion like ROH would be better served by a champ who has epic matches.

How does Shocker not have a thread? I think he's clear the lucha WOTY for 2002 and 2003, which makes him a contender for the best wrestler in the world during those years. 2002 might be close with Ultimo Guerrero, but 2003 is Shocker so far. I'm not sure how far his run extends beyond 2003, but he was a pretty decent worker as a masked flyer and has some bright spots in his post prime work. Match recs: Shocker vs. Tarzan Boy, 5/21/2000 Shocker vs. Ultimo Guerrero, 12/13/2002 Shocker vs. Ultimo Gurerrero, 2/7/2003 & 2/14/2003 Shocker vs. Vampiro (hair vs. hair), 4/4/2003

This was better than I expected. It wasn't great or anything, but I was expecting it to be terrible and it clearly wasn't. It was essentially an angle where the Japanese heels taped Satanico's leg to the ring post with duct tape and worked him over until Casas made the save (in an atrocious ring tights and tennis shoes combo), setting up the hair match in May. Prior to that we got some spirited brawling from Satanico, and some okay work from Nosawa. He's kind of a freaky looking dude, but he leans too heavily toward posing after every move, which is a mistake a lot of foreigners make in Mexico. I guess they see a lot of the stars doing it and think it's something they should be doing all the time. I can't say I blame them as they probably feel like like a fish out of water in Mexico, but it becomes a crutch where they're trying to get heat instead of putting in work. I don't have high hopes for the apuestas, but it's not bad TV.

This was a decent bit of weekly TV. If you were hoping to see plenty of Atlantis vs. Wagner, you got your money's worth. I actually thought it was the best Wagner/Atlantis stuff we've seen in a while. There was some showboating from Wagner, but it was mostly good old-fashioned action. Quemonito made the mistake of getting involved here when he did an apron dive onto a prone Warrior. The rudos paid him back by beating the shit out of him with Warrior holding him upside down by the ankle and making suggestive poses. I'm not sure if it was the first time rudos had beaten Quemonito up, but it's the first time I can remember seeing it. Lizmark even gave him a little bit of CPR, which I thought was weird. A couple of other things that stood out where Warrior absolutely decapitating Niebla with a slingshot guillotine leg drop onto the ramp, and Lizmark having some rapid-fire exchanges with Universo. What has Thin Lizzy been drinking? I always say that if you watch enough of a wrestler, you build up a tolerance to them, but even Lizmark Jr? I must be growing soft in my old age.

This was surprisingly decent given my low expectations for title matches at Arena Mexico. It was shorter than you'd like, but that was partially due to clipping, and there was some sloppiness as times, but they can be forgiven due to them being heavyweights. Mr. Niebla is clearly not the second coming of anybody, however credit to Universo 2000, who always seems to turn up for these big matches (or medium-sized in this case.) Must be his Dinamita DNA. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about him being added to the Wagner/Black Tiger trio, even though I knew what he was capable of against Perro Aguayo, but he made a strong case here as a guy worth using. This match won't mean much to folks as a standalone match, but as part of the weekly TV it was a plus.

Eddie and Tajiri were a fun looking tag team. Unfortunately, this is the last we see of them as a tag team as this is the match where Eddie turns heel. Are Haas and Benjamin supposed to be heels or faces? It's hard to tell from their ring work. They're athletic and hardworking, but don't have the charisma it takes to shine in the WWE. It's hard to imagine one of them turning on the other and becoming a big star. The match is OK, though kind of standard Smackdown stuff. There's a drawn out angle at the end where it appears Eddie is concerned about his partner but attacks him instead. Cole says, "that's not the Eddie Guerrero I know." Really, Michael Cole? Are you stupider than you look? I didn't really love the way Eddie played the heel turn. Sometimes his comedy doesn't land. If you can call this comedy.

This was an intriguing match on paper. I expected a bunch of matwork from this, and true to form they spent plenty of time trading holds. It wasn't overwhelmingly impressive, but the best parts had a judo flavor to them. Real judo has a lot more urgency to it, however, and is much more exciting. After awhile, they ditched the matwork and ran the ropes. It's always a disappointment when workers do that. I was kind of surprised that Yabushita got the win over Maekawa here, and with a weak flash pin as well. In the end, I suppose this was all right. Just curb your expectations a bit and don't expect too much from the matwork.

This was my first time seeing the late Jimmy Rave. I can't comment on him too much as he spent most of the match on the defensive. I'm trying to hold off on judging workers too quickly these days. A few years ago, I was weirded out by seeing some recommended Styles matches from TNA when I was only familiar with his New Japan work. Now that I'm acquainted with this era of Styles, I'd probably enjoy those TNA matches more. Styles looked good on offense here, as he often does, and I liked the way they scrambled on the mat. Decent sprint.

The Tibor match is against Ivor Barrett, IIRC.

This was pretty average. I was skeptical of the Japanese guys when they showed up in CMLL but ended up enjoying their matches, so I'll withhold judgement until I see the hair match. There was one cool dive train from the Infernales here, but otherwise this did very little for me. It wasn't clear watching this how much Satanico has in the tank but that's hard to gauge from weekly trios matches.

I have a match of Tibor's from the late 60s. Its not that different from his 70s work. I would like to see something from the early 60s to see if he's significantly quicker. McManus is younger and fitter in the Pallo match, but there's something to be said for how generous he is putting guys over in the 70s. He wasn't the greatest wrestler, so I suspect there is less to be gained by watching a younger version, but I could be wrong. With British wrestling any new footage is welcome, even more stuff from the 70s.

How does the Delfin thread have so few comments?? The Little Master is one of the highlights of early 00s puro.

This was a better showing from the Guapos, though they still don't have a lot of chemistry as a trio. The rudos and tecnicos joined together at the beginning to pay their respects to Ray Mendoza, who had passed away a few days earlier. Then they started the match on the mat where the great man had been so proficient. There was a lot to like about this match. I really liked Atlantis vs. Magica, and Casas finally woke up and did something in 2003. They gave us a smidgeon of Casas vs. Shocker. Can you imagine how good that match could have been if they'd worked it like Shocker vs. Ultimo or Shocker/Vampiro? More impressive, though, was how good Shocker made Lizmark look. I actually found myself enjoying a Lizmark Jr performance for the first time. You can officially put Shocker in the same category as Rey Bucanero, i.e. guys who made both Vampiro and Lizmark look good. I guess this means Shocker is better as a rudo. He's certainly making the most out of the circumstances.

This was your classic "week after" trios where the guy who lost the apuesta gets a sliver of revenge over the winner. It was also the debut of the new look Los Guapos with 2003 Guapos University winner, El Terrible, teaming with Shocker and Magica for the first time. Guapos U was a spoof of WWE's Tough Enough show with Shocker and Mascara Magica bringing in luchadores from outside Mexico City to compete for a spot in the Guapos. Personally, I would have preferred that Zumbido got the third spot, but he was tossed from Guapos U for poor behavior and for feuding with Ricky Martin, which led to them having a hair match. In true CMLL fashion, the Guapos U angle was mishandled and pushed aside, but eventually El Terrible won a makeshift final. Unfortunately, the Guapos debut was less than stellar. It was one of those trios matches where the workers don't seem to do anything. Vampiro vs. Shocker wasn't satisfying, and Casas did absolutely nothing. Bit of a comedown from the excellent apuestas match, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Meh, I have no interest in watching a wrestling feud about drugs and alcohol. These guys tried to work a decent dog collar match, but this is no Valentine vs. Piper. Raven was uninspiring. The ECW stuff didn't hit a sweet spot for me since I was never an ECW fan. I can totally see other people enjoying these things, but not for me.

Brock Lesnar defends the WWE Heavyweight Title in a No DQ Triple Threat Match The WWE was generally pretty good at booking these three way matches with Rock vs Angle and Undertaker from Vengeance 2002 being particularly memorable for me. This wasn't nearly as good as that match, but you could still see the road agent's fingerprints all over it. The road agents were really good at creating a wave, and delivering enough high points that you're left thinking you saw a pretty good match. There were enough holy shit moments in this to satisfy the video game crowd, and the finish pushed the Angle/Lesnar storyline forward. I'm not really into Lesnar vs. Angle as much as I would have hoped heading into the 2003 footage, but this capped off a fairly successful debut PPV for Smackdown.

This was a match that Cena was supposed to win, but Vince changed the plan on the day of the show. The match is okay. Taker was a fairly decent brawler at this point.. He gets a bloodied mouth and Cole keeps on harping on about Taker having internal bleeding. Junior Cena isn't the greatest worker, and I can't stand his J-Roc gimmick, but he was working hard at getting himself over. He could have used the rub from Undertaker here. I can understand Vince getting cold feet over jobbing Undertaker, but in the long run, who's going to remember Undertaker losing on a July PPV? Taker didn't gain anything from beating Cena. Apparently, people weren't happy about the decision internally. The finish is pretty weak. Cena doesn't even get some rub from it. I guess people were pissed at Vince for being a wet blanket.

I was viewing it more along the lines of worker who never had the best match they possibly could, as opposed to wrestlers who never had a great match. I guess it's possible that Jake vs. Sawyer is the best match Jake could have possibly had. It's a bit of a futile exercise since it's left to the viewer's imagination.

Revenge match. Cuts straight to the end of the first fall and takes a while to get into a groove. Atlantis takes on Ultimo and Rey by himself, which reminds me that Atlantis is one of the all-time greats at taking on multiple rudos at the same time. Which may not sound like much, but it's the kind of swashbuckling action that lucha was built on. Niebla and Universo have a decent tussle as well. We don't get as much GdI as the week before. No miracle carry jobs of Lizmark Jr. We'll see what sort of match Niebla and Universo can deliver. Looks like clipping has reared its ugly head, though. Not cool.

This was really good up until the bullshit finishing stretch that reduced it to "just another match." I loved how they built the match from the crowd up, and worked at a slow, methodical pace, instead of giving the crowd the video game wrestling it wanted. There was a real old-school build to this that was comforting for an old fuck like me. When they did hit their signature stuff, they got nice pops. Then the malarkey began. The first part was "Cheat to Win" Latino Heat stuff, which is okay I guess. At least they went a beat or two beyond Eddie simply winning by hitting Benoit with the belt. It seemed like we might get a decent finish after all and then Rhino showed up and turned on Benoit. Not only is the wrestling like a video game, but the booking too. I swear it's like season mode on WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain. If there's a reason why they don't talk about this one, it's probably because of the crap at the end. The one positive from the match is that Eddie continued to look strong.

This had a hot finishing stretch, including an incredible nearfall where the crowd thought for all money that Mysterio and Kidman had won the tag titles. It also had the heels winning cleanly with an excellent maneuver. The body of the match wasn't anything special. It was better when Mysterio was in. Kidman has zero identity in the WWE. They should have let him keep the wifebeater and jean shorts. Generic guy in tights was a one way ticket to Palookaville. If I'd been a mate of Paul London's, I would have been like, "Bro, look what they'd done to Billy Kidman. You don't wanna go there." The hot finish made this seem like a much better bout than it really was, but kudos to them for pulling off that stunning nearfall.

Something positive about Dos Caras.. His All Japan match against Dr. Wagner is one of the best exhibitions of pure lucha libre that I've ever seen. UWA television was dire? I love that stuff.