ohtani's jacket

This was a Grand Prix Torneo Cibernetico. Not the greatest cibernetico, but even an average cibernetico is better than most of the matches they show. They cut straight to the elimination portion where we discover that the Tijuana boys are still around. Remember when they were making waves? The way wrestlers come and go in CMLL is really frustrating. You think they're getting a push, and there'll be a blowoff down the line, then they up and disappear. Speaking of which, Santo is back for this match. Despite my bitching, I was curious to see who would win and who would make an impression. Satanico looked great again. I guess I was wrong about the cage match being his swan song. He's looked fantastic in 2002 every time he's made tape. Zumbido and Felino picked up where they left off in that cool trios match from the week before. Casas had a great exchange with Satanico, but he's having another one of those years where they have nothing for him. I'm pretty sure he'll only be relevant if Santo sticks around. More ammunition against the "Casas was best in the world for every year of his career" crowd. I sort of lost interest in this after Satanico was eliminated. The final pairing was Santo vs. Mascara Magica. Santo going the distance was no surprise, but I guess they saw something in Mascara Magica that I don't as he scored a huge upset victory. Yeeeah, I dunno. If you're gonna pay Santo to put someone over, why not the guys you've been trying to push like Shocker or Black Warrior? I like the fact that midcarders can win ciberneticos. We all remember how great it was when Felino won in '97. But Magica? I'm not convinced.

This is the only match I can find from the pay-per-view, and it's an absolute dog of a main event. How the hell this happened is beyond me. The Dos Leyendas show in 1999 had the famous Santo/Casas vs. Bestia/Scorpio mask vs. hair match. 2000 had the legendary Atlantis vs. Villano III match. 2001 had the masterfully booked Universo 2000 vs. Perro Aguayo match. 2002 has this. This has to be up there with the worst matches to ever headline a PPV.

It's cool that this made TV. You get the usual Ricky Marvin vs. Virus exchanges, but you also get to see Zumbido and Felino square off, which is an awesome throw down between two guys who should be higher on the card. This had everything you want from midcard lucha. Great exchanges and dives, and fun gimmicks like Dr.X.

This was pretty weak considering it was a number one contenders match for the CMLL trios titles. It was heavily clipped and came across as a GdI showcase because of it. There were some neat exchanges between Atlantis and Ultimo. but that was about it. Feels like an age since we've seen Olimpico on TV.

England also won the 2010-11 Ashes in Australia.

It felt like the Patriots losing to the Giants, except that this Australian side aren't the Patriots. It's hard to find an analogy because India were only the underdog due to injuries. They're one of the best cricket sides in the world but were reduced to second stringers. Australia have lost a number of test series at home since their dominance ended, and IIRC it's the second series in a row that India has beaten them at home. Of course, nobody expected them to lose at the Gabba, but personally, I think the 2001 Kolkata test was better because of the follow on, and because Australia had won a record 16 tests in a row.

Jean Corne & Ischa Israel vs. Marcel Mannevau & Claude Gessat (aired 4/21/60) Another match that we already had but one that benefits from the context the archives have given us. Watching this out of context, I would have gravitated toward Les Blousons Noir because they're the heels. The same way that I gravitate toward the rudos in lucha matches. In fairness, Marcel Mannevau is a brilliant heel, so I can't blame anyone for being captivated by his act, but the thing that struck me about this match were the faces. I think the faces are underrated in Catch. I wouldn't have known who Corne or Israel were when I first saw this, but now I know that Israel was already established at this point while Corne was still an up and comer. With that knowledge in mind, it's no surprise that Israel's work is better, yet it's enlightening to see which of Corne's exchanges are good and which exchanges are awkward. Tag team wrestling was becoming increasingly popular during this time, but they had this strange idea that the falls needed to be of equal length. That led to plenty of wrestling, but each fall feels like a match unto itself, and it's difficult to get a feel for the rhythm. This is incomplete, anyway, since they ran out of television time, but it's a reminder why European tags have never really worked for me.

This atomics looked decent on paper, but it was another disappointing chapter in the Wagner vs. Warrior feud. Wagner's trio wore "Fusion, Lagunera" t-shirts to the ring and wore half-Wagner/half-Panther masks. Juvie was there to support his old man's new team. Not sure what happened to his Tijuana crew. I guess they've moved on. Wagner vs. Warrior is a write-off at this point. I was kind of impressed with Juvie, though, and there were a couple of neat Shocker match-ups. He didn't own his segments, but he was better than the limp Black Warrior. More story than action. I was disappointed that they didn't follow up on the savage Niebla injury from the Wagner/Warrior mano a mano.

I like the new looks for Emilio, Scorpio & Bestia, especially Emilio's short dark hair, but unless this Talibanes gimmick starts delivering some goofy vignettes, I don't see how it has legs. As soon as the bell rings, the Talibanes wrestle exactly how the Guapos did. There were some fun moments with Atlantis and Casas, but they were running over old ground. Hijo de Lizmark is one of the weakest guys on the CMLL roster, but I try to ignore that. It's not something that's going to suddenly change, and with his size, it's probably not his fault. The most notable thing about this was the result. I was kind of surprised that the tecnicos nabbed a win.

I wouldn't go that far since it's not one of the great Australian sides, but it was a stunning result. I was shocked.

How delayed were the PPVs? We had PPVs on free-to-air TV in New Zealand, but they were months behind.

@MoSWhoa, India.

This had its moments, but I wasn't really into it. I liked Misawa's elbows and Takayama's knee strikes and kicks, but I was disappointed by the overall dynamic. Takayama should have been more aggressive. I have no idea why he holds back so much. He comes across as this huge dude with no killer instinct. Misawa took too much of the offense, and to be honest, a lot of the time it felt like he was going through the motions. Misawa was never really great against opponents like Hansen, and I felt like Takayama was also somewhat incompatible. It's strange because it really shouldn't be that way. Misawa was one of the all-time great sellers, and one of the reasons why he was so great at selling a beating was because he had that deep offensive arsenal to draw upon when he needed a counter punch. There's no reason why he couldn't have taken a mauling from Takayama, sold it like hell, and pulled out an elbow or suplex right when he needed to. Instead, he works from the top and winds up gassed. Everybody gets old and slows down. I guess I shouldn't hold Misawa to such impossible standards, but this feels like one of those matches that he got through, instead of a match where he showed his genius.

Man, I love Takayama. In my mind, he's like an Andre, or a Hansen, or a Vader. Unfortunately, he didn't get booked that way. He pretty much gets treated like a giant JTTS. This match had flashes of greatness, but it would have been better if they'd treated Takayama as a bigger threat. Nagata's a guy I'm supposed to like in theory because he's technical and a mat wrestler, but I don't because it's half-arsed. I'd love to see Hashimoto vs. Takayama. I bet that would have ruled.

Jack de Lasartesse vs. Michel Allary (aired 1/22/60) This was old but worth watching again. Lasartesse is such a great Buddy Rogers style heel. In many ways, his lack of offensive prowess actually works in his favor as not only can he concentrate on heatseeking, he actually looks like even more of a prick by not being that good at professional wrestling. I love how much of his offense is based around those ridiculously long legs of his. Allary is a classic French babyface and starts throwing haymaker uppercuts five minutes into the bout. Entertaining scuffle. I'd love to see how Lasartesse fared against Dapp or Leduc. Al Hayes & Ray Hunter vs. Roger Delaporte & Andre Bollet (aired 2/1/60) This was really good. As much as I love Villars, Delaporte and Bollet were special together. This was easily the best Hunter has looked in the catch footage. The credit for that has to go to Delaporte and Bollet, who were in fine form here. Hayes also did a fantastic job of holding up his end. I came out of this wishing I could see a Hayes vs. Delaporte singles match, which, honestly, is the most excited I've been about Delaporte in a while. If you're looking for entertainment from catch, this ticks all the boxes.

I finished Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer. It tapered off a bit towards the end, as most runs do, but I was happy that he tied up all the loose threads instead of leaving them for another writer to ignore or misinterpret. The biggest problem I had with the run was the impetus for Constantine turning his life around after he'd hit rock bottom. I thought that could have been handled better. More impressive was the Heartland one shot that deals with Kit's life in Belfast and her relationship with her family. That was a great read. Proof positive that Ennis doesn't need to use shock tactics to write a really good story. Some other things I've been reading: Jonah Hex, where have you been all my life? I've always had a fondness for Westerns but never explored the genre in comic book format. The Hex stories have been excellent so far. I have been eagerly devouring Roy Thomas & Barry Smith's Conan the Barbarian. I love the early Savage Sword of Conan issues, but for the longest time, I had this impression that the original Conan title was watered down and not worth reading. That was stupid of me. Smith starts out as a Kirby clone in the early issues, but he quickly begins to develop his own style, and within half a dozen issues, his artwork is simply phenomenal. It really is some of the most gorgeous stuff I've seen in comics. Although, I'm up to the Elric crossover right now, and I think that's been a misfire. I also read the Chris Claremont & Frank Miller Wolverine mini-series. Having lived in Japan for many years, I thought the representation of Japan was silly (Yakuza, ninjas, etc.), but the art is nice. If you like Miller's early work on Daredevil, you should check out his pencils on the series.

I was dismayed to see Ishikawa in MMA trunks, but this ended up being one of the more memorable Ishikawa vs. Usuda fights. Anyone who thinks Low Ki vs. Danielson is a straight MMA/shoot style knock off needs to watch the real thing. This was a better MMA/shoot style bout than Low Ki vs. Danielson, but it lacks the hype of two US indie workers defying the norm. You can argue that it doesn't have the three act structure that Danielson and Low Ki tried to use even in their tap out match, but the work itself is superior to the tape influenced Low Ki and Danielson.

This was cool. Hard to see anything topping Low Ki vs. Danielson as the best US rivalry of 2002. My favorite part of the match was blows to the head that Danielson gave Low Ki in that modified STF hold. I don't know whether that was an MMA influence or BattlARTS, but it was cool. The only part I didn't like was the Germans and that lame fist pump from Danielson. Aside from that, this was right up my alley. I'm not sure why everyone is high on Danielson and low on Low Ki, though. They were pretty much equals at this point. I prefer Low Ki to Danielson, but only because I like his gangsta Master of Kung Fu shtick better than Danielson's babyface act. The one thing I don't get about Danielson, even now, is his charisma and the pull he has with folks. I didn't watch this stuff as it happened, and he was never one of my boys, so I can't really relate to the hero worship. What I can respect is the commitment to working a no-pinfall, submission match with an MMA/shoot style influence. That is an awesome thing to ape.

This was a pretty average trios match up until the third caida. The first two falls revolved around Tarzan Boy & Los Guerreros del Infierno's dislike of Mascara Magica and the fact that Satanico couldn't trust him either. Shocker more or less took a backseat during the first two falls, but the third fall was outstanding. Satanico gave another fiery performance. His second strong performance of the year for those of you keeping count. After being shackled in the early going, Shocker finally took center stage, and his exchanges were excellent. His work here was far more satisfying than the singles matches of the past few weeks. The finish was screwy, but it didn't matter since it happened in rhythm. I was down on Shocker heading into this match. Now I think he has promise as a tecnico. I wonder what my final opinion will be.

This was better than I expected. Heading into the match, I knew that it was more or less an angle, but I didn't expect the rudos to do such a number on the tecnicos. Panther attacked Black Warrior's second, Niebla, with an armbar that was easily the most vicious thing I've seen Panther do as a rudo. Then he helped bust Black Warrior open with a pair of scissors, no less. And, finally, Wagner showed that superstar charisma of his that has been sorely lacking for most of the year. Pretty good as far as storyline matches go.

When you think about it, it's kind of crazy that Gran Markus Jr headlined a CMLL PPV in 2002. But he did, and it's pretty harmless. Perhaps I have a soft spot for it because Pierroth is involved. Gran Markus got another beatdown here, and shockingly, he bled.

I wasn't feeling this until Kanemaru tore the front of Liger's mask open, and you could see Liger's poor attempt at growing facial hair. The opening was chaotic, but inter-promotional stuff had been done to death at this point. It is impossible for me to get excited about this being NJPW vs. NOAH. Japanese promotions had been doing inter-promotional feuds and "invasions" for decades, but the 90s saw a real overkill. I don't think this was as good as the average NJPW vs. WAR match, but I did love Kanemaru turning it into a street fight, and I loved the finish. Tanaka was such a douche. He clearly modeled himself after the King of Douches, Nobuhiko Takada.

This was a title match for Shocker's World Light Heavyweight Championship, but it was far from classic. In fact, it was pretty bad. The match was an excuse to have Tarzan Boy attack his second, Mascara Magica. Tarzan Boy had been talking shit about Mascara Magica for a while and making it clear that he didn't think Magica belonged in Los Guerreros del Infierno. The finish was the worst I've seen in a title match, but it's not as though it spoiled anything. The entire match was sloppy and derivative. I questioned why this match wasn't headlining the March pay-per-view, but I'm struggling to see how they could have delivered anything better on pay-per-view. I guess I was hoping these Shocker vs. Tarzan Boy matches would be sneakily good like the Wagner/Atlantis matches from the year before, but no dice. Apparently, they had a rematch the following week, but the match records are unclear. In any event, we don't have it on tape, which may be a blessing if it actually took place.

This was surprisingly clean -- no run-ins, no low blows, and no bullshit with the ref. Well, there was a foul, but it wasn't a match killer. The work was good, but it was mano a mano, so they were holding back a bit. The troubling thing was the lack of crowd heat. If it wasn't for the cheering sections, the crowd would have been dead. Dare I say it was too clean? This was one of Shocker's first singles matches as a tecnico, and he didn't really put his stamp on the match. Certainly not as much as he would have done as a rudo. Quite a stepdown from the previous week's trios match where it felt like Shocker had arrived. CMLL ran this match three weeks in a row instead of building to a match on their 3/17 pay-per-view, which strikes me as odd, but let's see where the rematch takes us.

Kojima came into this match with a different attitude from their February match. He wasn't going to be bullied or pushed around anymore. Of course, it didn't take long for Tenryu to remind him who's boss. I swear the band-aid over Kojima's nose was like a red rag to a bull with Tenryu using it as target practice. The Osaka crowd was right behind Kojima, which led to a longer than necessary finishing stretch, but hey, you can't blame Kojima for milking the crowd reaction. Actually, there wasn't a hell of a lot else on this card, so I guess they had to go long. Honestly, I don't expect Tenryu vs. Kojima matches to be great, so I was happy that the match was good. More enjoyable than the dreck we saw in 2001.