ohtani's jacket

I don't think the art in Lone Wolf and Cub compares to a work like Vagabond. I haven't read Lone Wolf and Cub to the end so I can't comment on the story. The best manga I've read is Berserk.

This was confusing as hell, but basically Silva turned on Porky, which led to some great "No, Andre! We're friends!" moments. Dantes appeared to turn face, Black Tiger double-crossed Silva, and everyone beat up Pierroth at the end. A hot mess, BUT, we did get to see Satanico vs. Apolo Dantes, which was awesome. Satanico bows out for 2002, and what a great note to end the year on. He may not have been involved in anything as high profile as last year's cage match, but he was excellent in just about every appearance. Even in a minor role like this. I don't know if he's a top 10 talent in CMLL anymore, but I might sneak him in there.

This was an okay match, but nothing you wouldn't see on a regular CMLL show. Black Warrior was a sub for Casas, which was a shame as I wanted to see more Casas vs. Juventud. Juvie didn't have much chemistry with his teammates, and the Japanese workers looked a bit lost compared to previous appearances. I don't know if that's because Juvie wasn't guiding them through the match the way Black Tiger did, or if they were simply a half step off, but trios matches fall apart pretty quickly when the timing is off. Super Crazy made his debut, but didn't leave much of an impression.

These guys match up really well. This is pretty much everything you'd want and expect from Doug Williams vs. Brian Danielson. It was interesting that they had Danielson survive by the skin of his teeth with the one fall instead of letting Williams get a pinfall or submission. I would have thought 2-1 would have been a fairer reflection of the match up and both guy's ability, but they went in a different direction and executed it well. They seemed to be driving at a rematch somewhere down the line, so perhaps that was the goal they had in mind. These Danielson matches are new for me. I'm not a Danielson guy and have never been on the bandwagon. The guy is clearly talented and works a style that I should, in theory, like, but in 2002 I don't think he was head and shoulders above his contemporaries. He seemed on par with most of them. I guess he overtakes them with his heel run, but there's still a lot of wrestling to go before the matches I'm familiar with. I'm curious to see what 2003 brings for him.

Say what you will about Edge, but he followed up on that Eddie No DQ match with this lengthy bout against Angle. That's no mean feat. Edge vs. Angle seems like a wrestling nightmare, but I'm generally pro-Angle, and I can imagine this match up being far worse in say 2006 or 7. Edge is banged up from the No DQ match and still hurting. He tries slowing down the match and working over Angle's arm. Angle is portrayed as the uber-dominant, superior wrestler, so it's an interesting dynamic. You know it's not going to last and that Angle will start popping off suplexes, but considering the length of the match it's a solid start. They work their way through some nice midrange stuff, and then we get to the problem with the match. For some inexplicable reason, Chioda gets knocked out, Mike Sparks comes in, he counts a pinfall on Edge, Chioda counts a pinfall on Angle, and then Chioda gets pissed at Sparks and lays him out with a right hand. It's a pretty good punch coming from a ref, but it makes zero sense and the commentators quickly drop it as a talking point. Chioda orders the match to continue, but the crowd has had the wind taken out of its sails. It takes a while for the workers to recover the heat. They get there eventually, but what was the point of the double pin? Anything can happen on Smackdown? Benoit ends up getting involved and it's all very predictable, however Smackdown continues to deliver PPV quality matches on a weekly basis, which is nothing to sneeze at.

There' are some interesting looking Dynamite Kid matches in the ITV archives -- vs. Breaks, Grey, Ken Joyce, Sid Cooper, and Jean Corne (!) I've said it before, but I wish Dynamite had been around more in that early 80s era where Rocco, Jones, Finlay, Murphy & Myers were all kicking out great matches.

I was never a big fan of the Rocco matches largely because of how they paled in comparison to the Rocco/Jones matches, though to be fair Rocco and Jones' matches in the early 80s didn't hold a candle to their 70s work. I liked that Mr. Wrestling match. There was a bit of a lull towards the end, but it was pretty neat. Mr. Wrestling looked like the more impressive wrestler even with the whole veteran vs. youngster thing they had going on. You will probably want to check out Dynamite's IWE stuff as well.

I really liked the DK/Fujinami match from Calgary.

Big day for me as I finished up Jonah Hex, Sandman Mystery Theatre, and Roy Thomas' original run on Conan the Barbarian. Jonah Hex remained a high quality book until the end, though it takes a dip toward the end when the book goes bi-monthly and Fleisher is busy at work on the Hex series. The last three issues are drawn and colored by the Gray Morrow. The artwork is gorgeous and the people are beautiful, but Morrow's style doesn't fit the gritty image of the series. The Crisis tie-in is awful, and yet it isn't the most frustrating part of the conclusion. Throughout the series, one of the most important aspects of the story was the women in Jonah's life, and yet we never find out what happens to Adrian or Emmylou, and even Mei Ling is treated shabbily. I suspect Fleisher felt that he could always return Jonah to the West and continue telling these stories, and indeed a few years later, Fleisher wrote one last Jonah story in Secret Origins which confirms that Jonah made it back to the West. It also sets up some lore about some tragedy befalling Jonah's son. I don't know if another writer followed up on that. I'm currently weighing up whether to read any of the later Jonah runs. Fleisher ended up penning over 100 Jonah stories. It was a brilliant run. Aside from the unresolved plot points, the only part I didn't like was when Jonah was abducted and taken to China, and even then I liked the story on the boat ride back. I'm gonna miss that ugly mug. Sandman Mystery Theatre ended strongly. I was pleased that Seagle resolved the things that had been nagging at me about Wesley & Dian's relationship. The final issue is really beautiful. It's almost as perfect as the ending to Casablanca. It's amazing how Seagle was able to wrap up so many plot points within a single issue. There were more stories the creators could have told, but they were fighting an uphill battle with sales. Having Wesley pull the plug on his own comic was brilliant. Personally, I thought the middle of the series was when the book was firing on all cylinders, but the book maintained its integrity until the end, which is rare with comic book runs. Roy Thomas was also able to exit Conan on a high, penning the 10th anniversary issue where Conan finally deals with his grief over Belit's death. Conan had spent a couple of years wandering about having adventures in the wake of her death. Occasionally, there would be references to her, but we never saw Conan grieve over her. This actually bugged me a bit as I wanted to see how a barbarian would react to these types of circumstances. I didn't expect him to have an arguments with God like Jonah did, but I wanted to see how his brooding would play out. Thankfully, Roy handled it beautifully and signed off with one of his best stories. Not sure where I'll go next with Conan. There is so much content I haven't read yet.

Ron Fuller and Bill Watts vs. Buddy Colt and Larry Hennig (April 9th, 1974) -- fun bit of footage from the Bill Watts vs. Buddy Colt feud. Has all the elements I love about Buddy Colt -- the taped thumb, Colt's reputation for putting wrestlers out of commission, and the flying knee from the top rope. Hennig and Fuller are fine tag partners, but this is all about Bill & Buddy. Good stuff. Florida Tag Team Title Match: Toru Tanaka & Dick Slater (c) vs. Eddie & Mike Graham (10-22-74) -- Eddie Graham was a great brawler and a great hot tag. He's so much better than Mike Graham it's not funny. The difference between Slater working Eddie and Slater working Mike is night and day. Eddie makes Slater look a top tier talent. Mike makes him look like a poor man's Terry Funk. I really want to see more Eddie Graham vs. Dick Slater after this. Good stuff. Gordon Solie Interviews Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. + Dusty Rhodes vs. Terry Funk (1979) -- We've seen this footage before of Terry and Dory attacking Dusty and ripping off his cast. This is book-ended by Terry and Dory being on the studio with Solie. Terry showed a gift for the gab as always. Junior fucked one the one line he had. I do like the cowboy hat and beard look he was sporting in '79. Repeat footage. Mike Graham & Steve Keirn vs. Don Muraco, Bugsy McGraw & Thor The Viking (April 28th, 1979) -- this was pretty basic pro-wrestling but the crowd was into it. Buddy Rogers makes the save at the end, if you can believe that. He looked pretty good too. Muraco continues to look like a stud in this Florida film. Decent footage. Florida Tag Team Title Match: Mike Graham & Steve Keirn (c) vs. The Spoilers (August 29th, 1978) -- not my cup of tea, though Steve Keirn looks pretty good. Another screwy Florida finish. OK footage.

The past couple of years, I've mainly watched lucha from '00-02. I now have a newfound respect for workers like Shocker, Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero and Tarzan Boy whom I was dismissive of in the past. I didn't like the fact that they pushed the style away from the classic lucha I liked from the 80s and 90s toward a more modern style. Now that the early 00s footage is reasonably classic itself, I've come to terms with the fact that the style changed, and I can finally appreciate how good these guys were as workers.

Are you guys talking about the 2/17 MSG match? Solid match. I liked it a lot. Satisfyingly worked for a time limit draw. The best thing about it for me personally was getting to see Bret work with Jim Brunzell. That's a fresh match up for me as '86 was a shade before my time. Bret was pretty methodical during his Hart Foundation days (in my books, anyway), and when he did play to the crowd it came across as ham-fisted, but from a pure wrestling point of view, I really liked that front face lock that Bret used to stop Brunzell from moving to his corner. I also liked it when he gave Brunzell a dropkick of his own. Jim Brunzell's dropkick. though. That thing is like a Ciclon Ramirez tope.

I was talking about Piper.

God, I hate the commentary on these ROH matches. They rehash the same talking points over and over again, that is when they're not busy shilling ROH. This is the first time for me to see a Paul London match, though I've heard of him before. Without knowing anything about him, he comes across as a CAW where you add whatever move set you feel like. That may be grossly unfair, but it felt like the dude knew way too many moves. Danielson is frustrated about not breaking through to the top of ROH (I know this because the commentators told me so.) He takes a more aggressive approach against London than the commentators have seen from him so far in ROH, but it's more of ode to pissed off and frustrated Bret Hart than anything full blown. The finish was cool. I loved their fight on the top ropes. I can do without the post-match, but ROH was big on the handshaking thing. Good match.

I thought this was a decent TV match, but I'm pretty sure they were capable of more than this if the focus had been on Benoit vs. Mysterio and not the ongoing Benoit/Angle rivalry. It's obvious that the bout is filler before the Benoit/Angle pull apart. Well worked filler, but filler all the same. The part apart itself is pretty good. lol at the ref who tells Benoit: "It's over, Chris. It's fucking over."

The advent of the Triple Threat match has got to be one my least favorite things in wrestling history. but I have to admit that the combination of WWF main event booking and JR on commentary won me over here. If there was one thing that the WWE did well at this time it was the booking of their main events. They're incredibly well produced. I don't know who was responsible for blocking out this match, but they did an outstanding job considering how contrived the gimmick is. You've got to hand it to the performers as well. They may have had the match laid out for them, but they still had to execute. This was a polished performance from all three men, and a strong call from JR. They took a shitty bit of matchmaking and turned it into a high quality main event. If you were burnt out on the WWE at the time, I doubt this was the tonic you were looking for, but two decades later this stands out as the type of match that no other company in the world was capable of having. Certainly not this polished.

I might check some out as well.

I'm not sure if we're supposed to use the taping date or the air date for these Smackdown matches, but there's already a thread for the Eddie vs. Edge match and I don't want to confuse people about the dates. For the record, this was taped on 9/24. Cole will not stop going on about how Benoit vs. Angle from Unforgiven was one of the greatest matches he's ever seen. C'mon, Michael Cole. This was too short to be anything of note, but you get some more Angle vs. Benoit, and Rey does some breathtaking spots. They also have the good sense to put him over in his hometown..

This didn't do a lot for me, either. At least not until the finishing stretch. I didn't help that Cole & Taz wouldn't stop harping on about what a great match it was. Eddie was a lot more "Eddie-ish" here than in the early parts of his WWE run, but something's still missing. I can't put my finger on it, but his work is missing that signature touch that you get from the great workers' bouts.

The set-up for this involved some bad acting and shitty backstage vignettes, but the match itself was pretty much a PPV level match. It was a lot better than it looked on paper. I know Jericho's matches and feuds from this era weren't always winners, but Jericho comes across as a valuable player. It seems his best matches in 2002 were on television and not PPV, which doesn't leave as much of an impression, but if you want to see a guy make something out of crappy scripted WWE TV, you can do a lot worse than Chris Jericho. EDIT: This was taped on 7/23.

Steel Cage Match: Dusty Rhodes & Eddie Graham vs. The Spoilers (June 20th, 1978) -- this is mostly Dusty rapping over some standard cage match action, when all of a sudden, DUSTY DOES A HIGHSPOT FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE. Dusty Rhodes jumped from the top of the cage. Dusty Rhodes. Florida Heavyweight Title Match: King Curtis (c) vs. Rocky Johnson (December 23rd, 1975) -- King Curtis is a guy I haven't see a lot of, but he had a hell of a look. Dusty got involved in the finish enabling Johnson to win the Florida title. So many screwy title changes in Florida. No wonder Dusty booked the way he did. Nothing special. Florida Heavyweight Title Match: 'Superstar' Billy Graham (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes (February 15th, 1977) -- this was pretty shitty. Almost everybody looks good in this Florida footage, but not Superstar Billy Graham. No sir. Dusty tries, but when Dusty is the workhorse of the match, you're in trouble. Not good. Florida TV Title Match: Dick Slater (c) vs. Mike Graham (November 20th, 1973) -- Solie says these guys were high school classmates, but I can't believe a word you say anymore, Gordon Solie. Apparently, it's true. These are some lengthy highlights by Florida standards. Some decent looking action, but Slater isn't doing much to shed his reputation as a poor man's Terry Funk. Match goes to a draw. Slater no-shows the rematch, and the NWA awards Mike Graham the title. Another screwy title change. Decent footage. Florida Tag Team Title Match: Bobby Shane & Bearcat Wright (c) vs. Bob Roop & The Great Malenko -- it was hard to tell who the heels were here. I thought it was Roop and Malenko, but the crowd pops for the title change. They may have been popping simply because they saw the titles change hands. Solie puts Bearcat Wright over as a babyface, but that may be because of the way Shane treats his partner during the match. They get into an altercation at the end, and the crowd is behind Wright. I'm confused. The match isn't very good. I'd like to see some prime Malenko. Nothing special.

Universally acclaimed is a bit tough considering how small our circles are, but the other Valentine match ought to be in that category. He's another guy who was better before he went to work for Vince.

Bret was wrestling for the coalminers and the lumberjacks.

I haven't watched a Hart Foundation match in years, but off the top of my head, I would say fundamentally sound but didn't work in an era where WWF tag teams were able to have proper matches. I can't think of too many tag matches that era that go 25 minutes and serve as a second main event on a card. WWF tag wrestling in that era felt like a novelty -- two guys tagging together wearing matching outfits and always with a manager. It worked for me as a kid, but these days I guess I would focus on how much the Hart Foundation did with the time they were given. Did they use their ring time well or could they have done more? That sort of thing. By the time they got to the top of the food chain, Bret was already starting his singles push. 90s WWF tag wrestling wasn't an improvement over the late 80s, but they probably left a couple of feuds on the shelf.

You should watch the Bret/Yokozuna cage matches.