ohtani's jacket

This was pretty cool while it lasted, but it was mostly an angle to set up Lawler being Funk's partner in the MLW Wargames match. Lawler, unfortunately, was pulled from the Wargames show when the WWE caught wind of him appearing on MLW TV, which is a shame for us fans since this version of Lawler is far more interesting than commentator Lawler. Funk bleeding like a stuck pig while Lawler tried to take his eye out, and Lawler and Funk choking the life out of each other, were the highlights.

This got pretty good once the bleeding started, but I'd be amiss if I didn't point out Homicide's lousy selling. The dude was like a popup book on some of the major transitions. If we're going to take workers like Angle to task for that sort of behavior then I need to hold my boy accountable as well. Corino's selling was better, but I guess Corino is a better seller in general. Cool finish. It's a shame the ROH cameras couldn't catch it properly with too many bodies blocking the hard camera view. Not a bad match. I could go another round of these two.

Manami Toyota defends the AAAW Title Wow, this was really good. I thought Manami Toyota was washed up in GAEA, but nuh-uh. This was a really aggressive match with an element of spitefulness to it. To be fair, a lot of the credit should go to Satomura as that felt like more of a Meiko influence. Toyota vs. Toyota-clone matches generally aren't known for their aggression, though Toyota had ramped up her bitchiness and worked on her heel act over the years. I really liked Toyota's performance in this match. When she first started acting like a bitch in matches, it often felt like she was copying Mima Shimoda and Takako Inoue. Here, she was far more ruthless. Satomura's challenge for the title was different from a lot of the challenges we saw Meiko make as an up-and-comer, presumably because she'd been there before and was now challenging as a former champ. Toyota was hellbent on putting Satomura in her place and showing everyone in GAEA who the Queen Bee was. Prior to this, I would have said that Manami's jump to GAEA felt a bit like Bret in WCW, but she at least has this resume stuffer.

This was an interesting way to continue the build-up to the hair match -- by having a Japon vs. Mexico cibernetico. The match is a bit choppy. I'm not sure if that's because of cuts or the video quality. I also had some trouble identifying the Toryumon guys since it's been an age since I watched them. The match was a decent distraction that never really settled into a groove. Shocker caused a bunch of trouble. Casas and Masada wound up being disqualified for reasons I couldn't quite ascertain. Wagner played hero for the night, and it was clear that he could turn face anytime the promotion felt like it. He's a showboater, but there's no denying his charisma and its gravitational pull. The standout on the Japanese side was probably Takemura. It's a shame he's not in the hair match instead of Masada. All eyes are on next week. Can Satanico and Casas pull a rabbit out of the hat?

A few years prior to this match, Hamada and Nakanishi had been rising stars in their promotions and the future of Joshi Puroresu. I'm not sure whether we should be glad we got this dream match or bummed that it took place in a dying promotion. I'm not clear on the backstory here, other than both AJW and ARSION were struggling and began co-promoting in late 2002. This was the 35th Anniversary Show for AJW, but the crowd was so poor that they kept the lights off. The match was pretty good. There was moments of sloppiness and unfamiliarity, but it had a decent amount of energy to it. It was weak in terms of transitions and selling, but Ayako, in particular, kept driving the match forward. It's a match that probably deserves a rewatch at some point. Momoe was pretty much done after this. She quit AJW a few months later and floundered about freelancing until her retirement. It's tempting to watch this match and presume that heart wasn't in it, but we can't know for sure. It's definitely more of an Ayako match, though that's the way she tended to wrestle. I'm glad I watched this even if it's not a major piece of the puzzle for 2003. In a way, it caps off that era of Joshi where Satomura, Hamada and Momoe were all making waves.

Yeah, he did that weird thing on NXT commentary where he name dropped as many Smiths songs as he could. He did something similar with Depeche Mode. Regal was a fan of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in general.

The death of Yoko Shimada, of Shogun fame, led to a bit of interesting info about Chigusa. They starred in a movie together in 1993 that was an adaptation of a play that was written about Chigusa by the famous Japanese playwright, Kohei Tsuka. Chigusa had been cast in one of Tsuka's plays in 1990 and 1991, and apparently Tsuka was so impressed by her that he wrote a role entirely for her. When they shot the film, they used real wrestling venues with real fans, which apparently inspired Chigusa to make her comeback. Pretty cool that she was so highly thought of by one of Japan's most important playwrights.

Team Angle (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) defend the WWE Tag Team Titles After loading their Wrestlemania card, the WWE went through a dry spell in April and May with not much worth watching. This ended up being the last combined B-show pay-per-view until Backlash 2007. Not surprisingly, the matches worth watching came from the Smackdown brand, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the year. Team Angle were supposed to face Los Guerreros in a rematch from the last PPV, but Chavo tore his biceps in a Velocity dark match against J.R. Ryder and was sidelined for six months. The smart money on Chavo's replacement was Chris Benoit, so it was a clever and refreshing pick when they went with Tajiri instead. I hate ladder matches, but this was pretty inoffensive. The commentators kept mentioning that Team Angle didn't know how to work a ladder match. It's hard to tell at times whether the commentators are trying to cover for Team Angle being green and inexperienced, or if Team Angle are being intentionally awkward. I suspect it's the former. There weren't a ton of big spots in the match. Eddie's frog splash off the top of the ladder, and a sunset flip powerbomb were the two big spots. It could have easily been a TV bout the way it was laid out, but the fact that they didn't try too much worked in their favor. Eddie played ring general. Michael Cole got excited and called him Eddie "Guerrera" again. Not once, but three times. Clearly a Juvie fan. Maybe even a Fuerza fan.

This kicked all kinds of ass until the forklift shit, though I've gotta admit, Brock drove that thing like a maniac. The dive off the forklift was cool, but I was kind of wondering where Brock got his wind from. It's so typical of the WWE to spoil an excellent match with an outrageous and over the top finish. Not that Brock standing on top of the forklift and raising the belt was the worst finish in the world, but he could have just as easily beat Big Show's ass and pushed the stretcher over the yellow line. Awesome match, though. Callbacks to Andre vs. Killer Khan. Two hosses beating the shit out of each other. Young Brock might actually be better at gimmick match brawls than mat wrestling and suplexes. Big ups to The Big Show for being interesting too.

This match was designed to put over the Japanese wrestlers and give them some momentum heading into the hair match. As a result, it's mostly Satanico and Casas selling for the Japanese guys, which is a shame really because that's a killer Mexican lineup. The tecnicos get in a few licks, but they're mostly on the backfoot. Satanico and Casas are excellent working from that position, but I'm still waiting for Casas to explode into life in 2003. The Japanese guys haven't been super compelling so far, but like it or not, this is the CMLL feud with the most momentum right now.

This was an odd matchup. Its main purpose was to remind us that Tarzan Boy vs Vampiro was still a thing, but it was wrapped up in a strange package with an older-than-dirt Mil and a hobbled Pierroth. Atlantis worked hard as usual but nothing about this clicked.

If Vince had been younger, I'm sure he would have fought this harder.

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.