ohtani's jacket

I did not know that Kohsaka worked some New Japan matches. This was pretty fun. Probably not the right environment for it, but they didn't hold back. I don't know how I would have felt about Koshaka working New Japan full-time, but I do know that Japan was desperately missing the likes of Tamura and Kohsaka at this time. Takayama is pretty much the MVP in terms of being able to cross over and work any promotion, but the talent pool in Japan is thin. Tamura vs. Takayama is another fight I would have liked to have seen around this time.

Pretty much all of these Tenryu in AJPW matches are worth watching as he continues his WAR revival. Here, Araya and Arashi decide that Fuchi is the lesser of the two evils and give him a working over, but if they think years of comedy six-mans have dulled Fuchi's edge, he gives them a reminder or two of what a vicious bastard he can be. Tenryu takes a backseat to Fuchi, but he dishes out a beating every time Fuchi throws him one of the pups, and he kicks everyone's ass when he finally does tag. This could have done with a bit more violence, but it was still pretty good.

This is only a few minutes long, and you get the true classic later on in MUGA, but if there's a pro-wrestling heaven it looks something like this. Fujinami looks great here. Man, I'd love to have seen a long Fujinami vs. Ishikawa match. That would have been the match of a lifetime, for sure. Fujinami fires a bunch of shots at Nishimura, who gets the win in a match that has no business being on a dome show. But hey, there are worse novelties in wrestling than two grappling legends having a workout in a baseball stadium.

VIllano III just edges it over Blue Panther for Mexico, though not necessarily due to ringwork. I think Panther is clearly a better worker than Villano at this stage, and probably all-time as well, but that's an argument for another day. Kobashi, to me, is the biggest star in Japan. Benoit is probably the best guy in the US.

Even I can't argue with Jumbo for this year. Satanico, Dandy and Fujiwara the best of the rest.

I had Santo and Blue Panther neck and neck in Mexico. Austin's stuff is good, but Low Ki is my favorite dude from '01.

El Dandy is another guy who deserves consideration for '89. I'm pretty sure Fujiwara didn't jump to UWF until halfway through the year.

I don't remember Yuki Miyazaki being a comedy worker, but that's how she presented herself here. In between the comedy, they went at each other pretty hard, and there were a few times where Miyazaki had to desperately avoid getting her arm torn off. Not bad for what it was.

Short match by their standards. Pretty well worked. The transitions were less than ideal, but hey, it's a Joshi sprint not a work of art. I'll say this for Hyuga -- for a girl from the Fukuoka style of Joshi, she sure developed some nasty looking knee strikes to go with the flashy moves. Ran is awesome as always. One of the few bright spots on the Japanese scene.

This was JIP, but it was a chance to see one of the best workers in the world practicing her craft. Rie Tamada was a tough lady, but she was basically putty in Yoshida's hands. It's a damn shame that Yoshida was practicing a dying craft at this stage, but she spent some time on the mat. The Joshi style stuff wasn't bad either, to be fair, and I dug Yoshida's punches, but you really want 1999 Yoshida to continue forever. It doesn't, and the scene is shittier for it. I wish Yoshida had worked some JWP dates instead of floundering about in ARSION. That would have been the perfect promotion for her in 2002. There's no way Yoshida vs. Ran Yu Yu wouldn't have ruled in 2002. I shouldn't be complaining too much. At least we got to see this, and at least it was halfway decent.

I believe Delfin & Demekin got a shot at the tag titles thanks to their win at the Osaka Tag Festival. This was the revancha match for QUALLT & MA-G-MA, and you could see the result coming from a mile away. That said, it was still an entertaining diversion. Demekin was given a lot of ring time, presumably because they were grooming him as a Deflin's heir, which meant we didn't get as much Deflin as I'd like, but beggars can't be chooser when it comes to getting Osaka Pro on tape.

This was exactly what you'd expect from a JWP house show of this era. JWP was running afternoon and evening shows on the same day, so the girls had to converse their energy a bit, but it was the classic mix of hard hitting action and slower paced psychology. Set up the Hyuga vs. Ran match later in the month.

Lesnar had an undeniable presence in '02. He had arguably the most impressive physical presence since Vader in the early 90s. This was a smartly worked bout. I wouldn't call it a great match, but the people who put it together knew what they were doing. The remarkable thing about it was Rock put Lesnar over clean. You don't see that too often. Give n the company's history, it's amazing that they didn't fuck things up when it came to Brock's push.

Roger Delaporte & Andre Bollet vs. Warnia de Zarzecki & Mr. Montreal (aired 12/12/65) Boring match. The Delaporte/Bollet magic just wasn't there anymore. Worst of all, they kept it going for 40 minutes. I kept waiting for a flurry of excitement but it never came. The babyfaces were as much to blame in that regard, but honestly, this was the least entertaining that Delaporte has been thus far.

I read Hulk: Future Imperfect and The Thanos Quest, both of which would make my (very short) shortlist of best Marvel comics of the 90s. The former is set in a future where the Hulk has become the insane ruler of a nuclear wasteland, and the latter sees Thanos travel around the cosmos kicking butt and collecting Infinity Gems. Both books have outstanding artwork, Perez on Future Imperfect and Ron Lim on The Thanos Quest, as well as solid writing. Peter David was knee deep in his Hulk run at this time, and Starlin had just made a triumphant return with Silver Surfer. In many ways, this was the end of "my" era of Marvel where the writers still had equal billing to the artists. I was particularly impressed by Ron Lim's artwork. I didn't realize that he was so good. My biggest memory of Lim is being profoundly disappointed when he took over the pencils on Infinity Gauntlet. What surprised me most was the range of facial expressions he was able to get out of Thanos, especially those looks of despair whenever he was in the doghouse with Mistress Death. Villain-led titles aren't the easiest to pull off, but Thanos is such a multi-dimensional character that Starlin is able to make it work. You know he's going to succeed in his quest and claim all of the Infinity Gems, but it's a bunch of fun. The Maestro in Future Imperfect is likewise charismatic, and quite an outstanding character in an era not renowned for introducing a lot of new outstanding characters. So yeah, thumbs up for both.

You don't want to open that can of worms again.

A lot of these names deserve a nomination. I don't know if anyone would vote for them, but it shows that 70s/80s Joshi, European wrestling, old-school territories and lucha remain weak points in the list.

Too bad.

I finished Tomb of Dracula Magazine, which ran for six issues. There was no reason for them to resurrect Dracula for this series. At first it seemed like the magazine would continue on from where the monthly series left off, but then Wolfman left, and it became more of a Dracula anthology series (something they could have easily done without resurrecting the character.) Roger McKenzie writes some of the stories, and the last issue is penned by none other than "James" Shooter himself. As with the other Marvel black and white mags, the highlight is the gorgeous artwork from the likes of Colon and Buscema. There's even a quirky Ditko story, whose Dracula has a passing resemblance to Dr. Strange. Tomb of Dracula is one of my favorite Marvel comics from the 70s, and I was surprised to learn that the magazine came out only a month after the regular series ended. Instead of being excited about more Dracula stories, I found the magazine largely unnecessary and not worth reading even if you're a fan of Tomb of Dracula. Another comic I want to talk about is Mister X. This comic completely fell off a cliff once the Hernandez Brothers left. I have never read a comic of this ilk (touted indy comic) that crash dived so quickly after such a promising start. There may have been a few that were cancelled, but never one that crashed and burned like Mister X. Others may not agree, but I was shocked. I ended up re-reading Concrete: Think Like a Mountain. This was the mini-series where Concrete got involved in an eco-war. I believe it was also a time when Chadwick got heavily into the environmental movement. In terms of Chadwick's craftsmanship, his work was starting to reach new peaks, but the story kept bugging me. Then it kept bugging me that the story was bugging me, like I must be some kind of anti-environmentalist if the story bothers me, or that Chadwick was telling me things I didn't want to hear. I still haven't figured out what to make of it.

Yeah, that was a great podcast, especially for fans of that era of IWRG.

Please tell me you’re having Black Terry on the podcast.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Ernie Ladd (July 15th, 1977) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- cool footage of the crowd gathering outside the Tallahassee Sports Stadium. The work here is pretty decent all things considered. Ladd does a good job of bumping for a man his size, and the two go back and forth the way you'd expect them to in front of a hot crowd. Shitty Florida finish. Decent footage. Lumberjack Match! Rocky Johnson vs. Bob Roop (July 22nd, 1975) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- this continued the wars between Rocky Johnson and Bob Roop and Killer Karl Krupp and Cyclon Negro. OK footage. Dusty Rhodes vs. Killer Karl Kox (July 25th, 1978) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- Dusty has brought Wahoo McDaniel into the territory to put an end to these 2 on 1, and 3 on 1, beatings he keeps receiving. He commentates over some house show footage of Wahoo coming to his aid against Killer Karl Fox and Buddy Wolfe. Killer Karl Kox was such a fun worker. I love his wobbly leg selling after he takes a beating. Decent footage. N.W.A. Women's World Tag Team Title! Leilani Kai & Judy Martin (c) vs. Joyce Grable & Vicki Williams -- this looked pretty good, but unfortunately it was shot from a low angle at ringside, so it was a bit jarring at times (especially the edits.) OK footage. G Southern Heavyweight Title Match: Dusty Rhodes (c) vs. Thunderbolt Patterson (October 2nd, 1973) -- Dusty was a really fun heel. He begs off and stooges with the same aplomb as his stylin' and profilin'. Really cool dynamic here with Thunderbolt's headbutt being treated as a potent weapon. Good footage.

World's Championship Womens Wrestling 1938. Clara Mortensen vs. Rita Martinez. This was really good. These Golden Age women really knew how to grapple, and they could fight too. They were right up in each other's grill the entire bout and worked that technical brawling style I'm so fond of. The commentary belittled the wrestlers, but the in-ring action made them look like stars.

Vic Christy vs Hans Schnabel and Don Arnold vs. Jimmy Lott -- this footage was a bit weird as the video said it was Red Berry & Tony Morelli vs the Becker Brothers, but it ended up being the two singles matches. And weirder still, the footage was spliced together so it kept switching between the two bouts. We actually have one other Christy vs. Schnabel match on tape. Watching Schnabel this time, I was struck by how good he was as brawling 50s heel. I don't think I've ever dug him as much as I did here. I don't know if that's because Christy is a good foil, or because he's working Los Angeles instead of Chicago, but he got over with me. Arnold vs. Lott is the better match -- more of a fired up, aggravated, technical bout -- but Schnabel stood out as giving the best performance. Despite the odd splicing, this is another example of why Los Angeles was such an exciting territory. Plenty of rhubarb in Los Angeles, that's for sure.

El Satanico/Pirata Morgan/MS-1 vs. Pierroth Jr./Jaque Mate/Masakre (2/21/92) This was even better than the first match. This was the match that set up Pirata vs. Masakre, and it was beautifully done as Satanico and MS-1 did a fucking number on Pierroth ad Jaque Mate, which left Masakre all alone. The Infernales were so good. They're easily the best trio I've seen. I'm not gonna say they're the greatest trio of all-time because they may be some historical acts that were better, but they're definitely the best trio from the TV era. They have no weakness. All three guys can be the lead guy, and when one guy is playing the lead (like Pirata does here), but other two still manage to give brilliant and compelling performances. Satanico is absolutely phenomenal here trying to unmask both Jaque Mate and Pierroth. Luchadores trying to unmask each other can be boring as shit, but Satanico raises it to an art form. MS-1 isn't as flashy as his partners, but he's brilliant in the heavyweight enforcer role, and I love his boxing spots. But the biggest revelation is Morgan. What the fuck happened to Pirata Morgan? Here he is in February 92 every bit as good as Dandy, Casas, or Satanico. He should have continued in this vein for at least another half a dozen years. Instead, he fell off a cliff. I guess it's all downhill from here for MS-1 too. Who would have thought that would happen with these hot ass matches? Interestingly, Los Intocables barely fire a shot over the course of two weeks, but the matches are still entertaining as hell. I don't remember the Pirata/Masakre match being a classic, but now I'm interested in revisiting it, which clearly makes these matches a success.