ohtani's jacket

I've had some time to reflect on this in the past few days instead of bursting into uncontrollable tears. Miura was one of the greatest mangakas ever, and one of the finest artists in the history of comics. Please google search his work if you've never seen it. If you think manga is thrashed out work with little attention to detail or no background work then Berserk was the complete antithesis of that. It was the best manga I've read. It was dark fantasy that was uncompromisingly dark, but the main character's struggle was better than anything I've read in comics. It's uncertain at the moment whether Miura's assistants and publisher will continue with the series, but I'm not worried about whether we'll learn how the manga ends. We lost someone who had a profound influence on so many lives. Berserk is Darkhorse's top selling book. I hope it's reputation continues to spread in the West.

The irony is that Pete Parker was only in high school for the first 28 issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

Kentaro Miura died. I am going to lie down. When I wake up, I hope this was a bad dream.

I finished up Gene Colan's run on Batman. It started off okay. I liked the early Gerry Conway scripts. But there were no classic stories and the monthly continuity wasn't that interesting. No matter how hard Moench tried, I wasn't interested in Batman's romantic relationships or the cast of characters. Colan had a lot of different inkers, and I don't know if it was his pencils or the inkers, but I didn't like the way a lot of the characters' faces were depicted. I especially disliked the way he drew Jason Todd and other kids. His Bruce Wayne was inconsistent as well. It's possible that his work on Batman works better in isolation than reading it within the continuity. The last issues I read were Batman #373 and 383, which he drew after he stopped working on the Batman book regularly, and those books were much more interesting visually than his end run on Detective, but again, that may be because of the inking. The reason I started reading Colan on Batman is because I liked a lot of Colan's work on Daredevil, but I'd have to say that his Daredevil work was better than his Batman run. Not sure if anyone feels differently about that.

Contenders -- Jim Breaks, Satanico, Fujiwara, Steve Grey, Negro Casas, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Le Petit Prince, Marty Jones

Alan Sarjeant, Billy Howes, Peter Szakacs, Albert Wall, Gwynn Davies, Adrian Street, Tony Charles and Abe Ginsburg are great wrestlers with limited WoS footage. From the States, Enrique Torres is the first name that springs to mind. Billy Goelz as well. Lord James Blears. Baron Michele Leone. Mariko Akagi for Joshi. I'd love to see some 60s and 70s German catch -- Horst Hoffman, Bock. For French catch, I really liked Rene Gerber, and Modesto Aledo left a strong impression.

Glad to see I'm not crazy. Looking forward to seeing more Cruz too. CMLL TV (March 14th, 1993) Lasser Tron/Metalico/Triton vs. Los Guerreros Del Futuro (Damian El Guerrero/Guerrero del Futuro/Guerrero Maya) (CMLL 3/12/93) This is the first Guerreros del Futuro match I've bothered to watch. They were a fun midcard trio. Damian El Guerrero is a freak. We get some Guerrero Maya vs. Lasser Tron in this. What's so special about that? Well, it's not every day you get to see Black Terry vs. Hector Guerrero now is it? Of course, there are better ways to see Black Terry vs. Hector Guerrero, but it was still pretty cool. Terry was pretty solid in general as Guerrero Maya. I would have preferred CMLL to bring Terry and Feliciano in without masks, but their role makes sense when you see them in action. Ciclon Ramirez/Oro/Ultimo Dragon vs. Bestia Salvaje/Felino/Negro Casas (CMLL 3/12/93) This was part of the buildup to Casas vs. Dragon and Felino vs. Ciclon Ramirez, the two best feuds in CMLL in 1993. What I love about the Casas vs. Dragon feud is how Casas adapts to Ultimo's offense. It's almost like he has to adapt or die because of how deadly Ultimo's kicks are. I can't remember too many Casas matches where Casas dishes out this many kicks. The Ramirez/Felino stuff is great, but what struck me this time was how good the Bestia vs. Oro match-up was. Bestia got to do some serious wrestling in this, and I kind of wish we saw more serious wrestling from Bestia instead of stooging all the time because Bestia was a fucking great wrestler. He's another guy who was out of this world during this '92-93 period. The ending to this match was spectacular. All three highspots were sensational. One of the best endings to a trio match I can remember in terms of big spots. Very good match. Atlantis/Rayo de Jalisco, Jr./King Haku vs. Black Magic/El Satanico/Mano Negra (CMLL 3/12/93) This was an average main event brawl, but it had a few things going for it. Firstly, Atlantis was pissed, and I always dig fired up Atlantis. Secondly, we got a healthy dose of Atlantis vs. Satanico, which I wish was the apuesta feud instead of Atlantis vs. Mano Negra, to be honest. And thirdly, we got Satanico vs. Haku, which I know is a match-up somebody out there wants to see. Satanico trying to figure out how to solve the Haku problem was fun to watch. Negra and Atlantis may have had one or two good exchanges, but I remain unconvinced. They definitely haven't lit the arena alight like Felino and Ramirez or Casas and Ultimo.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Mando Guerrero (6/9/78) Another Fujinami gem from the70s. Junior title match from LA. Mostly worked on the mat. Very cool.

Jimmy Dula/Jean Martin vs. Monsieur Montreal/Leon Minisini (aired 11/16/62) I was kind of dreading this when I saw it was 46 minutes long, but it ended up being one of the better tags in the Archive. Jean Martin was a revelation. He was fun in that Bernieres match we caught the end of, but he looked like a Wrestling God here. Look at what he had to work with here -- Jimmy Dula being goofy and weird and a couple of wise guy babyfaces. Martin was brilliant and carried the match with his unparalleled showmanship and phenomenal brawling. Martin and Montreal had one of the all-time great brawl exchanges in this match. Probably the best manchette contest we've seen so far. Sleeper match this. I can't think of a tag I liked better than this.

I didn't like this at all. Toyota played the veteran bitch outsider, but it was too much of a caricature. They had zero chemistry together and the size difference didn't work in their favour. I can't remember the last time I saw a Nagashima match where she blew so many spots. Worst of all, I couldn't understand the booking. Why would you put the ex-All Japan Women's champion over the future of your promotion? On the same day that All Japan pulled the trigger on Momoe as WWWA champion. On paper this seemed like a match you'd fantasy book, but it was rough as guts.

CMLL TV (March 7th, 1993) Mogur vs. Javier Cruz vs. Ringo Mendoza (hair vs. hair, CMLL 3/2/93) This was a fun match. I thought Mogur was great in this. First during a cool little rudo vs. rudo match with Cruz and then selling for Ringo. Now I feel the need to watch every Mogur performance from '93. Cruz continues to be a revelation as well. I knew he was great as a tecnico, but I don't remember being this impressed by his rudo run. I've always had a soft spot for Ringo, so I dug all three guys in this. The result was a bit of a shock, though. Cicloncito Ramirez/Ultimo Dragoncito vs. Felinito/Piratita Morgan (CMLL 3/5/93) Ha, Felino and Ramirez' minis hate each other too! Brilliant! This was good stuff. Pirata's mini is probably better than him at this point. Atlantis/Brazo de Plata/Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. vs. Black Magic/El Satanico/Mano Negra (CMLL 3/5/93) This had some decent brawling between Atlantis and Mano Negra, but not at that red hot level where you have to see everything from their feud. In fact, I thought Satanico was noticeably better than Mano Negra when he stepped in to help. That had a lot to do with how Satanico sold the beating he was dishing out. People tend to think of selling was the work guys do from underneath taking a beating, but the way you deliver the blows is just as important. Satanico had his best showing so far and worked some fun stuff with Porky that was probably cribbed from the Infernales long run of matches with the Brazos, but I can't remember of that so it felt fresh to me. The rest of the match was built around the sucky Black Magic/Rayo feud, so there was a ceiling on how good this could be. Vampiro Canadiense/Pierroth, Jr. vs Jaque Mate/Masakre (CMLL Tag Team semi-final, CMLL 3/5/93) This started off as a chummy show of respect between former trio mates and turned into a hate-filled brawl with Pierroth taking a king-sized beating. I dug the throughline here of Pierroth vs. Jaque Mate, and thankfully Vampiro stayed out of the way for the most part, hobbling around selling the beating, and being kayfabe useless. I always loved Los Intocables, so it was fun to see the Intocables explode.

That 2020 Ikeda match is wonderful. Ishikawa has finally completed his metamorphosis into old man Fujiwara.

Steve Grey Microscope thread -- https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/21054-steve-grey/?tab=comments#comment-5564390 British wrestling thread -- https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/15983-the-beginners-guide-to-british-wrestling/

The Slater cage match is a good 'un. I like their TV match as well.

Some thoughts: The crowd was non-existent at this point. Not only were the lights turned off, but there was barely even a smattering of applause. Unfortunately, that made a lot of the gimmickry come across as lame because there was no reaction for it. Those Marine Wolves costumes at the start were embarrassing. I don't know who thought that was cute. The match had a house show fell to it, and the falls weren't very good as a whole, but it was interesting to see a leaner, more mobile Aja working through the exchanges she would have practiced at the dojo a thousand times. Bull didn't really have it all together as a headliner at this point and couldn't carry the bout. Hokuto put in a decent performance. I really hated the hand clapping she tried to start in the third fall, but I imagine working in front of a dead crowd is tough, especially in a rhythm-based style like Joshi pro-wrestling. I was impressed with Minami. She had all the physical tools, and you could tell that Jaguar had a hand in her training because of the force with which she applied her offense. She could have been a bigger star in the mid-90s if she'd had a stronger personality and more charisma.

Heart says yes, head says no. There was a period from '88-90 where Emilio was on par with the other top workers in Mexico, but after that there is a steady decline. It's not that he's awful or anything. It's just a significant dip. He's still an engaging personality, but he's banged up and damn near falling apart. You can hide that in trios matches, but in singles it's painfully obvious. Still, it's Emilio Charles, Jr. I always loved the way that name rolled off the tongue.

The problem is that nobody outside of Jetlag, and I suppose strangers who don't post on this site, has watched Jd' in decades. Hell, even Jetlag going through GAEA feels fresh since it's a long time since anyone cared about that promotion. And even that the height of Joshi fandom, nobody cared about LLPW. So, you're basically left with people cherry picking the best parts of certain Joshi pro-wrestlers' careers, which isn't entirely fair when other women have their entire careers held up to scrutiny. I'm generally in the camp that only cares about a wrestler's best work, and I don't think people have the time or inclination to go through the best and worst of every person they're considering voting for, but I do think that if you feel strongly about a candidate (Asuka, for example), and people have negative things to say about that candidate, that you ought to take a look at that footage, judge it for yourself, and see if it has any impact on how you view the candidate. Heck, you might even have an interesting counter argument about the matches or the work. Also, I think there has been a shift in people's mentality over the years where post-prime work has become increasingly valued. Maybe that's just me getting old, but I know I definitely value post-prime work more highly than I did when I was younger. We've seen a lot of great work from older wrestlers since the original poll, and in some cases that's all we have from certain workers' careers. I am pretty sure that if Chigusa, Lioness and Jaguar had strong post-prime careers that it would definitely work in their favour. Otherwise you're shoehorning them into that period where the Matsunagas thought they were of any use, and I kind thought people were opposed to their business practices these days.

It was such a long time ago that we were watching the Terry stuff. Did he do much after the Wotan match? I feel like his candidacy needs a shot in the arm. The same with Navarro.

He has these super long singles matches that are brutal. A few of them are against Carpentier, who I don't really at all in France. I tend to think of Bollet as a tag guy. I think that's what suited him best. It's also an expectations thing. At first he seemed like an Arn Anderson type, or even a Mick McManus type, but he didn't maintain that level. That's kind of my fault though for anointing him too soon.

Check out Bull and Dump cruising around NYC.

I really liked his early appearances in the 50s, but I ended up getting so frustrated with him later on. I will probably be on the outlier on that as the Segunda Caida chaps are a lot nicer than me. Having said that, it's pretty late into the 60s when it starts to bother me, and Catch itself isn't the greatest by that stage.

Someone needs to pimp some 80s matches to watch because Asuka was great in the 80s was not a commonly held opinion the last time I was involved in any discussion of her. My impression of her was that she refused to sell for her opponents and ate up huge portions of the match on offense. The Chigusa singles matches were considered messes (personally, I like them in the same way that I like Toyota vs. Yamada matches), and the Jaguar match was considered inferior to the Devil/Chigusa match from the same show. If opinion has swung the other way, it seems to be off-site somewhere. Can we get a bit more to go on than Lioness was great? As far as judging her career goes, it's pretty clear that she had two distinct periods -- her 80s work and her 90s and 00s work. If you ignore the later then you're ignoring half of her career. Not just a few bad years at the end, but the entire second half of her career. if you like Asuka then you'll be more inclined to enjoy some of her later work. I saw her live in 2004 and together with Chigusa, she was better than another else on the card. It might not hold up that way on TV, but live she got a bigger reaction than favorites like Yoshida and Satomura. She was working against Nagashima, though, who was also good live. That Jaguar Jd' match Jetlag pimps is good. I'm sure there are other good performances. Go into bat for her if you like her that much.

Bob had a crazy amount of good matches. More than dozens of workers who rank above him. I like him pretty much every time I see him (most recently in the Patterson cage match which gets the highest recommendation from yours truly.) But I still don't feel compelled to vote for him. I think it's because his best stuff is in equal part due to the other guy. Bob is great foil for workers I enjoy , but I'm not sure I'd want to watch Bob against anyone. That's not the case with my favorite workers, But I do respect Bob, and I'd be super excited to see a new match unearthed if it was against the right guy.

Bull started a YouTube channel where she talks about her career. Her most memorable match is Bull & Grizzly vs. Aja & Bison, fwiw.

But we're Gokuaku Domei. Our songs are better, and we're gonna get her.