ohtani's jacket

How long until Bill SImmons is on the pod?

His real name should be Ken the Wooden Training Dummy.

I finished the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon Punisher mini-series. I guess Ennis' take on the Punisher character wasn't bad, and Dillon's art was all right, but the sophomoric attempts at black humour were too much for me. I also read the re-colourized collection of Dave Stevens' Rocketeer. I normally dislike re-colouring of older comics, but I have to admit it was a pretty good colouring job. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with the quality of Stevens' work. It's just a shame that the stories up and end just when it's getting good. Another thing I finished was Terry Moore's original Strangers in Paradise mini-series. This was a series I was aware of back in the 90s but didn't really know what it was all about. The art was slightly more cartoony than I was expecting, but I liked the overall dynamic. I could easily have seen myself picking this series up in the 90s alongside Bone and the other titles I was reading. And I also made it to the end of the first arc of John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake's Spectre. I know I've read this series before, but I can't recall if I made it through to the very end. It was so long ago that it feels like I'm reading it again for the first time. I don't entirely love the first arc, but the last three issues are some of the most intense stuff I've read in a while. I guess I had completely forgotten the details of the story because the finale hit me like a ton of bricks and the last panel is flat out amazing. It's a really grim and gritty 90s comic, but the storytelling is uncompromising, especially for a non-Vertigo book. I finished the 40th volume of Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom, which marks the halfway point in the series. It was easily the most impressive volume of the manga for me personally. I ran through a gamut of emotions, almost cried, gave the book a clap of applause, was taken aback by the depth of the storytelling, and was overwhelmed that Hara had stayed so committed to the manga for ten years. What I thought was a good manga has now been elevated to the next level.

I personally feel like I've seen enough footage of Johnny Valentine to know what he was like as a worker. What I don't know is how many great Johnny Valentine matches there are. If I'm making a list based on good guys were, then Valentine is a lock. If I'm leaning more toward output, then he might make it on the end of the list as a personal pick. There are a lot of workers i love with even less footage than Valentine. I can't justify voting for someone we might have one or two matches from. Valentine I wouldn't feel guilty about. In some cases, I don't need to see more. Do I really need to see more Londos to know that he was great? Or more Thesz? I mean, I would like to, but it's probably not going to happen. The fact that I already think they're great from a small sample size suggests that they were pretty freakin' good. It's possible that if we got more Valentine or Thesz footage that we'd discover that the average Valentine/Thesz match was nothing special, but that's true for pretty much every worker ever. I don't think it would lower my opinion of them that much.

Who is Tony Nese? Is he good?

For the 50s, I would go with Thesz. 60s is probably someone from Europe. The first half of the 70s was either Jack Brisco or Johnny Valentine.

Greg Valentine Demonstrates The Power Of His Elbow Drop (Championship Wrestling From Florida) (1976) -- footage of a young Greg Valentine breaking karate boards with his elbow drop. Ivan Koloff & Mr. Saito vs. Rocky Johnson & Pedro Morales (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- this is one of the longer clips from Florida. You get the sense that it covers every stage of the match. It's exactly what you'd expect from the teams involved. Koloff & Saito were interesting to watch. The heels refused to leave the ring at the end, so Andre and Ivan Putski showed up and cleared the ring. Andre beating up Masa Saito isn't something I expected to see this morning. Good footage. Pat Patterson vs. Angelo Poffo (January 11th, 1977) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- Poffo was in his early 50s here and still in pretty good shape. Pat worked babyface. He was never the smoothest of wrestlers, but he seemed particularly sloppy here. OK footage. Andre The Giant Wins A Battle Royal (April 16th, 1974) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- This ends up being Andre vs the Hollywood Blondes, and Andre gives the crowd their money's worth. He even does a spot that looks like something out of French catch. Worth watching as a reminder of how mobile and athletic Andre was at this point. Decent footage. Harley Race & Bob Roop vs. Rocky Johnson & Cyclon Negro (July 8th, 1975) (CWF) -- Jeez, Roop bumped like a madman in this. Cyclon Negro had such a cool look. Black tights, taped wrists, and a thick beard. I don't always love Harley as a stooge, but he had a good reason to stooge here. Roop was excellent throughout. The story Solie spun was that Roop was hellbent on putting Rocky Johnson out of wrestling. I've been digging Roop here and there as the second guy in tags, but this is the first time I've really enjoyed him as the lead guy. I'd love to see more of this feud. Very good footage.

I kept debating with myself whether I should watch this. I was hoping it would be two fat boys slapping the shit out of each other, but I knew there was a high chance it would be a whole bunch of nothing. Well, I'll be damned if it wasn't a seriously good match. The Osaka crowd was molten, and instead of being all slap happy, they went out there and had a wrestling match. Normally, Kojima's theatrics would turn me off, but the crowd was so hyped and Kojima was so into it, that I couldn't help but dig it. Two guys trying their damndest to win in front of a hot crowd. Can't ask for much more than that. A pleasant surprise.

Nice lightweight match between Spanky and my boy, Bobby Quance. I appreciate the grapple-first approach of indy wrestling even among the lightweights. This was tight, and built from the ground up, instead of being a dizzying string of highspots. Strong outing for both guys.

This played out exactly as you'd imagine. Amano took the fight to Aja. Aja gave her more than she probably should have. Amano rocked Aja but came up desperately short. It's the same formula that Aja works with every girl works with every girl that's below her in the pecking order. But even though you know what's going to happen, it's still super enjoyable. Amano is a great match up for Aja because she works like a shooter, not a highflyer, which makes this closer to ARISON than typical Joshi. Recommended.

I made it through all nine issues of the Howard the Duck Magazine. I'm not a fan of Howard the Duck, but I thought it was one of the better black and white Marvel mags. Mantlo is more concerned with continuity than Gerber. He wraps up loose ends from the color series. and even gives characters like the Kidney Lady an origin (which may not please some Gerber HtD fans.) There is plenty of satire, but it's not as outrageous as Gerber's work. There's some obligatory nudity in the early issues, and an infamous bedroom scene between Bev and Howard, but eventually they ditch the adult approach. Howard works as a cabbie in Cleveland for a while, becomes a vampire, returns to Duckworld, and eventually breaks up with Bev. Mantlo had a plan to have Howard become a huge TV star overnight, plummet out of popularity overnight, end up as an attraction at the Los Angeles zoo, and be reunited with Bev, leading to a wedding. However, he quit the series, and they decided to can the black and white magazine. They claimed he was returning to the world of color comics but that never materialized. The magazine's biggest strength is its art. Colon's work looks better in black and white, and when Colon's not penciling the stories, you get art from John Buscema, Michael Golden, and even a Marshall Rogers Batman parody. There's even a pin-up page by Dave Sim. If you want to read about the further adventures of Howard after Gerber departs then the magazine is the closest thing to the original, and blows other black and white mags like Dracula out of the water.

My general rule of thumb for Inoki is that that match ought to be from the 70s and it's better if it's against a native talent.

Gilbert Leduc/Claude Montourcy vs. Karl von Kramer/Robert Gastel (aired 5/26/65) This was a little run-of-the-mill to start with but turned into quite the spectacle. The first half mostly involved the faces embarrassing the heels to the delight of the crowd. Naturally, there's only so much embarrassment that heels will tolerate. That's when things to start to escalate, and where they can get out of control. And that's what happened here. Suddenly, this violent brawl erupted. Von Kramer was knocked out, and Gastel was forced to continue the match on his own. Rather than submit meekly to his opponents, Gastel fought and headbutted his way back into the match. He bust Montourcy open in a rare display of blood on French TV, and kept fighting like a wounded animal against Leduc. One of the more exciting finishes to a French match. It turned the bout on its head and totally changed the dynamic, and the tone, of what they had been doing. Early on, von Kramer excelled in the early action, but the final two falls were a reminder that this man Gastel could brawl. Memorable bout, for sure.

Atlantis, Negro Casas & Vampiro vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Jason The Terrible & Pierroth Jr. (3/14/95) This wasn't the greatest, but it was better than it looked on paper thanks to Atlantis, Casas, Emilio & Pierroth keeping busy. Head Hunter I, Head Hunter II & Pierroth Jr. vs. Mil Mascaras, Negro Casas, & Vampiro (7/14/95) Quite a long gap between TV appearances for Casas. He had a specific role to play here in a match with so many bigs. I wouldn't call it the best use of Negro Casas, but he played his role dutifully if you're the type that cares about sort of things. I like the way CMLL treated the Head Hunters as unbeatable badasses. Mil Mascaras made one of those random CMLL appearances of his (that never seem to be a big deal.) I was kind of shocked to see him job.

I've been reading quite a lot of stuff, but nothing that makes me want to read it every single day. I'm slowly working my way through the early Sgt. Rock stories in Our Army at War. I like the art, and I like the Sarge, but the stories are repetitive. It feels like I've read the same three stories half a dozen times. I've also been reading Doom Patrol and Metal Men in small doses. They're the type of quirky Silver Age titles I enjoy, but I can't read more than an issue per week because of how repetitive the stories are, not to mention the attitude that Doc Magnus has toward women. I began reading Planetary because it's on the CBR Top 100 list. I found it a bit smug at first, largely because I find Warren Ellis to be a bit smug, but it's slowly growing on me. I don't particularly care about all of the references to other comic books, but I do like a good mystery, and the art is impressive. I also began reading Ennis and Dillion's Punisher mini-series because it's on the same list. I don't know why I keep expecting something of substance from the Punisher. I should just accept it as an action flick. I thought Ennis would bring more to the table, but all he brought was a body count, and some of his worse traits from Hellblazer and Preacher, which usually involve mutilation. The part with the zoo animals was moronic to me. I was inspired recently to read Lone Wolf & Cub again. It's certainly a great work of art, though personally I have had my fill of Samurai stories. Flaming Carrot is a lot of fun. That's probably the best title I'm reading at the moment. I love Bob Burden's offbeat sense of humour. The book has some great one liners in it. Mr.X is also good. I was disappointed that the Hernandez brothers left so soon, but Love and Rockets is one of my all-time favorite comic book series, so I guess it was for the greater good. I've been struggling to get into Grimjack despite liking the creators involved but I'm persevering with it for the time being. I started a re-read of Ostrander's Spectre as well, and that's not holding up as well as I remembered, so perhaps I am not as fond of Ostrander as I thought.

Florida Tag Team Title Match: The Hollywood Blondes (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dick Slater (3-26-74) -- Slater accidently hits Dusty with a knee from the top rope, and later on, Dusty refuses to tag and walks out on Slater. Decent Funk style selling from Slater, but you know Terry would have done it better. The Hollywood Blondes seem like one of those teams that is legendary for doing the most basic heelwork possible. Decent footage. Florida Tag Team Title Match (No DQ): Pak Song & Mr. Uganda (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes & Jos LeDuc (1978) -- There seems to have been a sea change in the Florida territory from the early 70s Jack Brisco era to the late 70s Dusty era. I can safely say that I prefer the early 70s, but then I prefer my US wrestling to be as old as it can get. I don't know which era drew more, but I can't deny that Dusty drew a shit ton of heat even in a run-of-the-mill bout like this. OK footage. U.S. Tag Team Title Match: Killer Karl Kox & Jim Garvin vs. Bob Roop & Dick Slater (12-05-78) -- I don't know which is stranger here, Jimmy Garvin as a young up-and-coming wrestler or Killer Karl Kox as a babyface. This was really good. All four guys were excellent in their roles here. Garvin had great fire, Kox was brilliant as the veteran partner, and Roop and Slater were as good as I've seen them. Great footage. Florida Tag Team Title Tournament (December 6th, 1977) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- highlights of the tag tournament. Highlights include Rocky Johnson losing his shit against Killer Karl Kox, the tag team of Mr. Saito & Ivan Koloff, and another tremendous looking bout between the Briscoes and Graham & Keirn. The final is a bizarre piece of matchmaking as Saito & Koloff take on The Masked Marauders. Saito & Koloff win the titles in a cakewalk. Good footage. Bob Orton Jr. Workout Video (Championship Wrestling From Florida) (1976) -- the first half of this is film of Bob Orton Jr working out. Great if you're into that sort of thing. Then his dad talks about wanting Bob to take part in Superstars, which was a TV show that pitted top athletes against each other in a variety of challenges. I believe OJ Simpson won it the year before this clip. Bob Jr has a pronounced stammer. We see some footage of Bob running and cycling, and playing tennis. All this really accomplished was to let me know that young Bob Orton Jr was a fit guy. Don't bother.

Fun six man action. If you want to see good trios wrestling outside of Mexico, it doesn't get much better than Osaka Pro. Really polished, smooth, six-man action. It appears that Murahama was working more like a junior after his killer rookie year, which is a shame, but I suppose it helped him get bookings in other places. Black Buffalo is as solid as ever. What a great hand he was. A true professional. Everyone else chips in with nice spots. Refreshing match.

This was joined in progress, but it looked like another fun chapter in one of the best women's pairings of the early 00s. I say this in every Ito match, but my god, the foot stomps. I am pretty sure that Kaoru Ito's double foot stomp is my favorite move of all-time. Ito is such a weird worker for me. She doesn't really fit the mold of what I think a great pro-wrestler should be, but every time I watch her matches I get drawn into the action. Ito pummels Momoe, as you'd imagine. Momoe takes some big bumps, including a fun one where she bounces off the top rope to the outside. And there is an endless series of crushing blows to the rib cage that never, ever gets old. I didn't really buy the finish as believable, but it was fun to see these two square off again. The overall Grand Prix was a disappointment compared to the year prior, and as I've said before, the AJW renaissance was dead, but this was one of the last good matches from the era.

I really dug this. They kept this super tight and fought over every hold. I really like Steve Corino. He doesn't have the athleticism that Low Ki has, or the arsenal of moves, but he's dogged. And he keeps fighting the entire match. Again, this was the perfect tonic for all of those Low Ki spotfests. I wasn't sure how Corino would match up with Low Ki since Corino seems like a guy Low Ki could murder with his kicking game, but Corino was tough as nails. Great scrap.

Decent mat based match. It was very much North American style mat wrestling. I didn't see a lot of Japanese or European influences in the work. Danielson's work at this point was more along the lines of something you'd see from Ricky Steamboat, Owen Hart, or maybe even Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero. Collyer was working heel here and made a decent fist of it.

This was such a cool looking match on paper, and the ring entrances had me kind of pumped, but what a dogshit match. It's basically a DQ and a reset followed by another DQ. Definitely a candidate for Worst Match of the Year. Interpromotional matches blew in the 00s.

Jonny Quest was a wonderful action-adventure series. It's a shame it couldn't hold onto its audience, but who knows how much longer it would have lasted for with all of Comico's financial troubles. The second issue is one of the most moving comics I've read. A real heartbreaker. I've always liked William Messner-Loebs, now I hold him in even higher esteem. Thankfully, Comico pumped out a number of JQ specials and mini-series before the license expired. The Doug Wildey Jonny Quest Classics were beautifully illustrated, and the Adam Kubert art in the Jezebel Jade miniseries is exquisite. A delightful series, but what a toxic letter column! I have no idea why Diana Schutz indulged David Malcolm Porta the way she did.

The Dustin pod was great. Had to have been a big moment for you. Congrats.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Teddy Boys (Adolphe Sevre/Robert Le Boulch) (aired 5/9/65) This was part of the original Bob ALPRA collection, and I have to say it's aged pretty well. I'm not sure I buy Robert Le Boulch as a "Teddy Boy," but he's wildly entertaining as a bumping, stooging heel. Teddy Sevre is at least a younger looking man, and more vicious in his approach. There was a nice rhythm to this match, and I enjoyed the ebb and flow. I'm not a huge fan of Rene Ben Chemoul's showboating style, but he provided a nice contrast to the workmanlike style of Gilbert Cesca. Cesca is solid, but it's pretty clear that he wasn't a great worker. Certainly not based on the expectations we had from the original Cesca/Catanzaro match. He tends to be invisible in some of these tags, but I kept an eye on him in this one and he was a capable hand throughout. I thought they might go off the air without a finish here, but it wasn't the case. I still don't really understanding the pacing of French tags. The first fall was incredibly long, and the second two were tacked on in rapid succession, but I don't think it hurt the match here. Good match.

I read the J.M. DeMatteis/Keith Giffen Doctor Fate mini-series from 1987. Another post-Crisis misfire for me. That Giffen art that I loved as a kid does not register with me at all as an adult. I was kind of hoping that reading the mini-series would prompt me to continue with ongoing title, but I might have to skip it unless someone can convince me otherwise.