ohtani's jacket

Some stuff from '73: Robert Duranton vs. Ted Lamar (aired 7/26/73) Duranton is doing a gladiator gimmick in this. Lamar keeps him honest throughout and tries to mat wrestle, but Duranton's skills haven't improved much from the 50s footage. In fact, they may have regressed. At least the shtick is kept to a minimum. Jacky Corn vs. Frank Malmoa (aired 11/20/73) Frank Malmoa was a Sweden-born heel who wrestled in the UK a bit in the early 70s. I'd love to say he was a major discovery, but he wasn't all that good. I was kind of hoping for a sleeper Jacky Corn match, but this wasn't one of them. Roger Delaporte vs. Marcel Montreal (aired 12/10/73) This was a swimming pool match, which is just about the pits when it comes to French catch. For the majority of the match, they ignore the pool, but it's only worth watching for the sake of an older Delaporte, not because of anything they do in the ring. Delaporte takes a dip in the pool, woo-hoo. Warnia de Zarzecki vs. Fred Magnier (aired 12/10/73) We get about 5 minutes of this. de Zarzecki is still going strong in the 70s. I've gotta give Magnier props as he has more entertaining bumps into the pool than most wrestlers.

Henri Lambert vs. Roger Laroche (aired 4/30/59) This was an excellent contest. It followed the same formula that we've seen other wrestlers use, but what I liked about it was that both guys kept the match interesting while on top. This match could have easily descended into two French guys work a stalemate, throw a bunch of forearms and fail to get a result, but they were different enough in their approach that they were able to create a stronger dynamic than that. I particularly liked the way Lambert pushed the match forward, but both guys were strong on top and showed each other plenty of respect when underneath. The forearm smashes were great. They generally always are, but they're even better when they're on the back of some great work. This kind of match has been the winning formula in catch thus far. Some folks may prefer the showmen and the charismatic heels, but for me, this is the type of bout I hoped we would find in the archives. Excellent catch. Don't overlook this one.

Gil Voiney vs. Georges Kasbarian (aired 7/11/65) As suspected, Voiney could work. He was on the French national team, but turned professional after France decided not to take any heavyweights to the '56 Olympics (a common theme among a lot of the guys we're watching now is not making the '56 Olympics.) This was a nifty bout for a couple of heavyweights. The finish was a bit silly, but the work was good. The only problem with Voiney is that he's pretty big for this era and it looks like they needed to match him against other big men, so I'm not sure that he had the best opponents. He seems like a guy who would have been better off overseas. NB: I'm not sure if Gasparian is the right name, but that's what I'm rolling with for the time being. EDIT: I'm pretty sure it's Georges Kasbarian.

Al Hayes/Ray Hunter vs. Karl von Kramer/Dr. Adolf Kaiser (aired 3/6/59) Now that we know this 50s matches were broadcast live, it makes sense that we only got part of this. Presumably, after the cameras stop rolling the rest of the match is dark. If I'm not mistaken, they usually gave the result of the match on the following week's broadcast. In any event, it's the live broadcast footage that's archived. It doesn't appear as though there are any master tapes from this time. Which is a shame because this was a fun premiere manche. von Kramer and Kaiser were a two man comedy show bumping and stooging for the Aussies. They were so much fun the camera guy even bust out kaleidoscope cam. It's funny how Hayes doing basic British spots seems so exotic. I guess an Aussie catcheur doing those spots is pretty exotic. I thought Hunter looked better than normal, which is a testament to how good the heels were. All in all, it was a solid opening act, but the fact that we didn't get a finish speaks to the issues French tags have with rhythm and pacing. French tags tend to go long (often for the sake of going long.) There were clear points in this opening fall where they could have finished it on a high, but they reset and started over. I guess if you do that enough times, you create a certain rhythm, but if I'm the director of this show, I want to go out on the Aussies taking a fall. I'm guessing that was the general idea, since we've seen it in other broadcasts, so it's possible that they went too long in the opening fall, or maybe the bout wound up as a DQ and didn't go the distance. Either way, something to think about.

This was really good. I liked the role reversal from the kind of matches Kobashi had against Jumbo in the early 90s. Marufuji hits some sweet moves from the top and catches Kobashi flush. I don't like that finisher of his, but he's a great high flyer. Personally. I thought they should have ended this with the lariat, but I guess they wanted to give Marufuji a little more rub. I can definitely see the appeal of this bout.

L'Homme Masque vs. Roger Delaporte (aired 3/6/59) L'Homme Masque was a monster and moved around the ring like Frankenstein, but I can't understand why they booked him against Delaporte. Surely, it would have made more sense for him to maul a babyface for a couple of minutes than have this uneven bout against Delaporte. Voiney was playing a character here, but I kind of wish we had footage of him unmasked to compare it to. Believe it or not, he was actually a successful amateur, and as a professional he had a run in WWWF where he fought Bruno Sammartino and wrestled tag matches against Jerry and Luke Graham.

I liked this. Takaiwa has always been a guy I find watchable and I haven't seen enough of Marufuji to be sick of him. Sometimes all a guy needs is a beer in one hand and a 2.99 kick out. Now maybe that should be a beer in one hand and some territory wrestling or some shit, but 2.99 kick outs started for a reason. And that reason is because they're exciting. Japanese men's wrestling was so bad in 2001 that the bar is pretty low, but this is a top 5 match from the year for the simple fact that it registered a pulse.

I liked this. Takaiwa has always been a guy I find watchable and I haven't seen enough of Marufuji to be sick of him. Sometimes all a guy needs is a beer in one hand and a 2.99 kick out. Now maybe that should be a beer in one hand and some territory wrestling or some shit, but 2.99 kick outs started for a reason. And that reason is because they're exciting. Japanese men's wrestling was so bad in 2001 that the bar is pretty low, but this is a top 5 match from the year for the simple fact that it registered a pulse.

Thanks for clearing that up. Phil.

I'm still confused about the taping dates and the air dates. Did catch air on Fridays or Saturdays? Weren't some of the broadcasts live? The 2/5/59 show that was reviewed on Segunda Caida this past week, that show was taped on a Thursday and aired on a Friday? Or did it air live on Thursday?

This was a chore to watch. Unbelievably boring pre-match that wasn't a pimple on the ass of Fujiwara's attack on Choshu, and then the match itself was painfully average. Awful Michael Cole level English commentary. What is with Kevin Kelly trying to sound like Fukuzawa on the finishers? Dunno who the British guy is. He sounds like John Oliver. I've got nothing against modern New Japan, and I've enjoyed a number of the big recommended matches, but this match was an absolute bore.

Johnny Stein vs. Jean Bout (aired 2/27/59) It feels like an age since we've seen Jean Bout. He was one of the early archetypes we had for a French babyface. All those attributes are on display here, and he had to work hard in this match. Stein was a wear 'em down, strength guy, who drew heat by posing. He didn't really do much aside from that. The bout went 40 minutes, which was about 20 minutes more than it needed. The fact that I was able to sit through it without itching to do something else was a testament to how busy Bout was. I'm telling you, that guy was a good worker. Ultimately, the bout was a giant stalemate with neither man either to win the first fall and Stein getting disqualified out of frustration, but to go 40 minutes without a fall and not bore the tits off me, that is impressive. Sola has been the ultimate utility guy so far, but Bout shot up a few ranks with this performance.

This was pretty cool. I liked this. If you're going to work this type of match you might as well go all the way with it. Probably the most blood I've seen from a hard way cut.

Megumi Kudo absolutely nailed Bison Kimura during that long jump drill. It was impressive how athletic Hokuto was. Nagahori was pretty good too. Hotta sucked, naturally.

So this is modern Joshi, huh? This was some amateur hour shit and weirdly shot. I can understand people being into it if they're invested in the workers, but there's no way this is better than any number of derided Joshi pro matches from the past. Iwatani was a weird ass underdog baby face and Shirai wasn't much of a champ, but you never know, I might change my tune after a few more bouts.

What was up with the camerawork and editing in this match? I saw someone post a meme of a WWE-shot Street Fighter II match the other day, but the actual camerawork is something else. What is this? Dogma on crack? Who is Ryback and what happens if I feed him more? This was back when the Shield was a thing. I get why people were excited about them, but it's another one of those things that didn't turn out to be as big as people hoped or anticipated. It's not a bad match, and it kind of keeps the TLC gimmick to a minimum despite there being props laid out everywhere. It's mainly about the Shield being predators and hunting in a pack. I know this because JBL told me a gazillion times. Not a bad match, but felt like Best of 2012 WWE to me than top 100 of all time.

AJ Styles uses dumb innovative moves against a 6'8" version of Mankind. There were some decent moments inside the cage, but overall, this was not for me. The first time I saw AJ Styles he was working in New Japan. It's difficult for me to even recognize this AJ Styles as the same worker. A lot of the stuff he did in this match was Rob Van Dam level dumb. Just do the move! Why do you need to put some twist on it?

Guy Mercier vs. Robert Le Boulch (aired 2/5/59) Robert Gasel vs. Gaby Calderon (aired 2/5/59) These were like squash matches on a Saturday Night's Main Event. The Gasel/Galderon match was actually a pretty decent five minute match. Calderon was a judoka who would go on to have quite a bit of success in the UK wrestling as Professor Adiwasser, "King of the Ate Waza," first for Paul Lincoln and then on television with Joint Promotions. I don't know how common judo gimmicks were in Continental Europe at the time, but took pains to put over the Calderon arm bar with Gasel selling it as a dislocation. In the midst of all this was a vignette of Leduc practicing harness racing. For a guy who's the champ, he was surprisingly shy. All of this was counting down the seconds before the great Leduc vs. Le Bourreau de Béthune bout, a match I think everyone can enjoy even if they're not immersed in French catch.

Why is KENTA wearing yellow and brown? He looks like an ice-cream. I've never seen a KENTA match before. I've read the name a lot, but this is my first time watching him. I don't know what he's usually like and how this match compares, but I thought this was a great match. The work was significantly better than the Joe/Punk match and Danielson vs. Homicide. Those matches had a better story and more emotion, but this match ran laps around them in terms of work. It did occur to me when I was watching it that it felt like more of a Japanese match than a US indy match, and maybe I was showing some kind of Japan bias, but Danielson looked like a fantastic worker in this, his heel act was much stronger than the Homicide bout, and the finishing stretch one was one of the best I've seen in a long, long time. This match felt like perfection in terms of a young worker getting tapes, imagining what they'd do if they were working Japanese style matches. But Danielson probably deserves more credit than that. This is just a high level match from a thinking man's wrestler. I can see where the groundswell came from after watching this sort of bout. Great match.

Wait, these two had a rematch? See, I don't know anything. I know Brock ended the streak, that's about it. This match had all the subtlety of a jackhammer but it worked in terms of the storyline. There were some embarrassingly stupid moments like the part where they laugh at each other, the timekeeper controversy, the low blow, and Brock pulling the finger, but for the most part this delivered on the hype. The three man commentary crew were terrible -- stepping on each other's toes, contracting each other, bringing up talking points they never complete. JBL said the same thing over and over again, Cole was Cole, and Lawler didn't seem to know when to speak up. You've gotta have a two man team. I guess the best thing about this was that they were able to make up for their Wrestlemania shit show.

It's okay. It's Twitter. It's wrestling. It's a work like sumo.

I didn't have strong memories of this. This is the feud where Ricky says the NWA wanted to put the belt on him, but he didn't want to break up the Express. Sure, Ricky. This was good shit. It took off once Ric removed the nose guard and started working Morton over. Morton's comeback was good as well. I love how you can hear them swearing at each other. I can respect this pick. I dunno if it's an all-time great match, but I can respect it. The finish kind of sucks, but what are you gonna do? The announcer seems depressed. Stay seated for the fireworks, though.

Wait up, Ricky Morton was on AEW? Who would have thought it?

This wasn't an EMLL match. It was on an independent Monterrey card. I didn't even know this match existed. If I've seen this before then that brain cell definitely doesn't exist anymore. Wait, there's a whole thread about this match where people are debating whether it's any good and who's performance is worse, Lizmark or Satanico. I love that sort of shit. The match is okay, but kind of average. I don't think either guy gives a particularly good performance. The most telling thing about the match is that the third fall doesn't have the big nearfalls you'd expect from a lucha classic, and no dives. They don't really even try. And early on, the matwork isn't great. If you're pinning your hopes on anything for this match it's that the matwork is great, or failing that the exchange are good. I can't think of one highlight from this match. I love both guys, but they had better matches against other people in the 90s. Not sure how this made it so high up your list.

Look at that rudo lineup. They started this match off with a technical fall and the first pairing was Casas vs. Dandy. When you think about it, 2001 isn't that far removed from their classic matches together. Still, there was a great nostalgic feel to their work, for me anyway. We also got a bit of straight Parka vs. Panther grappling, and Satanico stretching Antifaz for a bit, which was cool. For some reason they kept the first fall rolling forever and it unraveled into some lazy rudo work. You could tell by the running time that this was match was going to be too long. If they'd trimmed the fat, it could have been one of the best matches of the year. Instead, it was just another Monterrey bout .There was an issue between Casas and Antifaz at the end, but they resolved it for the time being.