ohtani's jacket

Another weakish La Familia de Tijuana match. I guess Santo wasn't available this week. It's sad/amusing that a few matches ago, I was kind looking forward to how this would play out. It's surprising how sloppy Mysterio Jr has been in this run. Not a good run from him at all.

The quality of this match was down on recent weeks. To be honest, there was a drop in talent level. I hate to say this, but I kind of wish the Tijuana guys hadn't gotten involved in the mix. It can't be helped, though, as they're clearly pushing the group as a unit.

Emilio and Shocker have a contract signing for their hair match then the Guapos attack Shocker with the table. No blood, unfortunately. Shocker makes a comeback and the rest of the bout is mostly Emilio avoiding any sort of confrontation with Shocker or Dantes. Screwy finish with Babe Richard in the Guapos' pocket. This did nothing to amp me for the hair match, so it has to be considered a fail.

This was an interesting match for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you had Atlantis continuing to reignite his feud with Wagner, which, if we're lucky, CMLL won't ditch it once the month is out. Secondly, it seemed as though Black Warrior's long time trio partners were questioning why he had turned tecnico and tried to steer him back toward the rude side. I'm kind of glad they addressed that actually since Black Warrior was a part of those teams for so long.

What an awkward match. This starts off as a piss poor indy match and turns into a ladder match. There were so many better indy matches than this in 2001, so there's really no reason to watch Jericho and Van Dam fail at a WWF version.

Hogan didn't become famous because of Rocky III and New Japan. He became famous because of national expansion. If he'd never left Verne, he'd be a lesser known celebrity than Mr. T. Do you really think the momentum Hogan had after defeating the Sheik had anything to do with Rocky III, his hot run in the AWA, or the fact that he worked dates in Japan? You think the WWF's growing fanbase in the mid-80s had seen any of that, or had any idea it had happened? The further you get away from '82, the further away you get from kids having seen or heard of Rocky III. Rocky III was a box office hit, but let's not pretend it was some kind of seminal cultural moment. So, the argument here is that Hogan didn't "make" Hogan. That's true. A large part of Hogan's character was fleshed out in the AWA. It wasn't as polished as it would become in the WWF, but he was already calling himself the Hulkster and talking about Hulkamania running wild. But he didn't just fall in VInce's lap. Vince handpicked him for national expansion. The fact that Austin and Rock had shitty gimmicks before they got over is hardly unique or surprising. That's how wrestling works. That's how creative endeavors work. It would be great if you came up with a successful idea every time you tried, but it doesn't work like that in any creative field. One of the biggest problems in this micro-managed era is they are trying to produce a factory line of stars instead of throwing shit against the wall. It's very apparent that Vince is old and past his prime as a promoter. We all know the system doesn't work. Hell, I'm not even sure Vince wants to create another big star. I think he wants the brand to be the star.

Jimmy Dula vs. Robert Duranton (aired 12/26/58) This was better than I expected. A terrible looking match-up on paper, but not as mind-numbingly boring as I expected. Neither guy was a good wrestler, but they had a single-minded approach to wrenching on a hold, and that grit was enough to carry the match. Duranton worked babyface, which was weird in the context of 1958 Catch, but he adapted to it fairly well. A long match but never really boring.

I give you: vs. Which is the winner?

You guys are selling Vince and the WWF/WWE short. Vince didn't just stumble upon Hogan, Austin, Rock and Cena. Every time the WWF has been hot, the brand and every wrestler on the card seems better than the alternative. People weren't just into Hogan, they were into every wrestler up and down the card. I could tell you every angle that was happening in every match on every PPV from the 80s and early 90s. Subsequent booms weren't that strong, but the WWF machine knew how to make stars. Do you really think Foley, Undertaker, Benoit or Jericho were bigger stars in WCW than in the WWF? Michaels and Hart wouldn't be stars with the WWF. The WWF has always been good at getting wrestlers over. The thing Vince has always been afraid of is being on the bones of his ass like in the mid-90s, and relying on a star over the brand. Vince may not be a creative genius, but the old chestnut of him being lucky is ridiculous. As if Verne Gagne could have made Hogan into an international star. Do you really think I would ever have heard about Hulk Hogan down in little old New Zealand if Verne Gage had been his promoter? C'mon. Half of it wasn't about the workers but the production and the marketing. It's true that Vince has become conservative in his old age, but don't sell him short as a promoter.

Rene Gerber vs. Jean Rabut (aired 12/13/58) This was pretty wild. It was full of desperate lunges and thrills and spills. It almost felt like newsreel footage of the big moments of a vintage fight. I liked the tight camera angle at ringside. That gave it a documentary feel at times. There wasn't much distance between the fans and the crowd but Gerber had no qualms about tumbling into their midst. He was a heat seeker par excellence. I wonder if he ever worked babyface. You can kind of tell that he has technical ability behind all the bravado. Lino Di Santo vs. Liano Pellacani (aired 12/13/58) This wasn't the best Pellacani match we've seen, but it had plenty of fun moments. After the first fall, they showed this weird footage of Pellacani demolishing a building while workers cheered him on. It looked like Soviet propaganda film. They cut to the ring and Pellacani is demolishing Di Santo. He ends up getting DQ"ed, has a verbal exchange with Couderc, and bows out with a wry nod to the crowd. Gerber pretty much trumped him on this evening. If the JIP match had been a different style perhaps Pellacani's heeling would have stood out more. His in-ring career ended in 1959, so the road doesn't just end here because of footage.

May have been the mood I was in. I'll watch it again after your review. I was wrong about it being the only Columbo match we have. Apparently, there's a clip of him wrestling Mike Dibiase in Dallas.

I haven't followed the build up to this, but it's Emilio vs. Dantes, whom we're all familiar with and have seen in apuestas matches before. Emilio is still infatuated with the blonde-haired woman at ringside and brings her flowers. There's an attractive dark-haired woman who seems to be in Apolo's corner. The match is simple, but effective. Its main focus is on setting up the Shocker vs. Emilio apuestas match for the following month, so don't expect it be worked like a blow off match. Emilio is broken and hobbled, and not the worker he once was, but if you accept him for the worker that he is, he can still carry a storyline. He wins the match by smashing Apolo over the head with the flower vase. The bookers have clearly been watching 2001 WWF. It actually works better in this setting as those types of finishes rarely happen. Apolo gets busted open hard way, which leads to a cool visual of his blood stained shaven head. Suddenly, there's a huge commotion at ringside when a female fan attacks Emilio's love interest. I don't think that was part of the storyline, as there's a mad swarm to tear them apart. Afterward, Apolo's lady tries not to laugh while he's getting his head shaved and there's this big, beefy bodyguard standing next to her like he's auditioning for the secret service. Not a bad night's entertainment.

The latest sponsored video from the CFA is Larry Chene vs. Rocky Columbo. Chene is a guy we have a few matches from. Columbo is a guy we had no footage of. The sponsor chose this match because he wanted to see him wrestle. They work a long 30 minute draw. They do some nice wrestling but it's a slow bout and you don't get a lot of the sound from the area, so you're stuck in the booth with Davis. The match is in colour.

Franz Schumann vs. Jushin Thunder Liger (Bremen, 12/19/92) I'd never bothered to watch this before. This was from some kind of Japanese tape and had Liger and another guy doing commentary over it. Heavily clipped with a lot of the focus on Liger. I wouldn't mind seeing the full match since it looked like one of Schumann's better bouts.

Hot diggity! This was a dream match that was worked like a regular match but ended up being a dream match anyway, if you catch my drift. Santo was insane in this and is now the forerunner for Lucha WOTY. Atlantis was also great. It's amazing how he still doesn't get his dues as a worker. He may be the greatest trios match worker ever (at least on the tecnico side.) The WCW guys were again a step or two behind the mainstays. Their timing was off at times, and Mysterio didn't shine like you'd expect him to in a match like this. It was still a great match because of his partners, but don't get too excited about Rey being in it. Nicho el Millonario made a stronger impression than the week before. He did a lot of his old Psicosis tricks. At first, I thought it looked weird watching him do his theatrics without the get-up, but he stuck at it and took some crazy bumps. They let him cut a promo afterward, which made him seem like more of a legit presence in the company. CMLL is on a roll at the moment.

Dojos etc. don't produce stars. They produce trained wrestlers. Becoming a star in wrestling is more complicated than going through the right training. There are countless wrestlers who went through those dojos and didn't become stars. And I don't think they receive the cream of the crop either, but that's a different story. I would argue that one of the WWE's biggest faults is that they try to remove the element of luck in creating stars. The problems began when they started referring to everything as the WWE Universe, repackaging every indy wrestler as a WWE Superstar and teaching him how to walk, talk and wrestle like a WWE Superstar. It's inorganic compared to the way most wrestlers become stars.

This was a surprisingly great match. If I was going to choose a match to watch, Chris Jericho vs. The Rock wouldn't be my first pick, but they were able to work an awesome face vs. face match. And a technical match too, for the most part. I got hooked on the intensity and even found myself rooting for Jericho to win the big one, which is weird because they're fighting for the WCW title in a WWF ring. I honestly can't think of too many better Chris Jericho matches (at least up until this point), or better face vs. face matches in the WWF. It was definitely one of the best matches of the year -- that is, until the finish. The finish should have been Rock tapping to the Walls of Jericho. It would have been perfect and cemented Jericho as a huge babyface star. All they had to do was have Rock submit after failing to make the ropes. The pop would have been phenomenal and I would have come into this thread singing this match's praises to the heavens. But they had to involve Stephanie because she was part of the storyline. They just had to. Can't not involve Stephanie. The finish was one of the worst pieces of crap ever. I'm serious. They pissed in my cornflakes with that finish. Jericho liked like a prize dick afterward holding the title and the chair. Jesus Christ. What a way to ruin a moment. I am tired of crappy 2001 finishes in general, but this one takes the cake. Great match that I can't ever recall again without thinking of the finish.

I'm not involved in this project, but I'm looking forward to the results.

What's the closest thing to a star factory that pro-wrestling has ever produced? The lucha wrestling magazines? Wrestling has always involved an element of luck.

I can't believe I'm watching an indy ladder match, but Low Ki is easily my favorite indy guy from this era and I need to see any match he had that people say is good. I don't believe that a ladder has any place in a wrestling ring, but if you must use one then at least show as much commitment to the gimmick as these guys did. I actually thought the false finish was a decent ending if Low Ki used a submission to put Xavier out. The actual finish was insane. Great post-match too. Very good match.

Yoshida stretches out a young girl on debut. Well, they said it was her debut but perhaps they meant her television debut as she'd been wrestling on the house shows for about a year. Yoshida used an assortment of cool submissions and all I could think about was how poor we were for not having constant Yoshida singles matches throughout 2000 and 2001. Apparently, Yamagata went on to have a lengthy career. I have no idea who she is.

This was the Leyenda de Plata cibernetico that determined the semi-final match up. CMLL had a stacked roster in 2001. I'd consider almost everyone in this match a good worker yet they could have easily replaced them with 16 workers just as good. Not a classic cibernetico, but it has its moments. Atlantis and Wagner reprise their feud from earlier in the year, Santo has a deep run, as you'd expect from a tournament in his father's honour, and we get a double turn at the end when Black Tiger refuses to tag in when Black Warrior is in trouble. Definitely the best match from the tournament.

Excellent bout. If you want to cherry pick the best CMLL matches of 2001 then this is definitely on the list. Long form tag match with proper length falls and compelling work throughout. Santo and Casas finally win the tag titles with no monkey business at the end. The director has a clever idea at the end to juxtapose Bucanero's anguished face with shots of people smiling. It works the first time, but suddenly the dude thinks he's Eisenstein and it turns into the most over-the-top montage in lucha history. The rudo fan with the cowbell is so chill. I'd love to know what that guy does during the rest of the week. Santo is close to pinching Lucha WOTY at this point, though I do think Casas is the driving force behind making this feud work.

A lot of ex-WCW guys in this one. Black Warrior vs. Black Tiger is starting to heat up, and I'm glad to see Felino and Virus on TV more often. If there was a weak link in this match it was the WCW guys. Aside from one dive from Mysterio, they were pretty lackluster. Perhaps they were unfamiliar with the house style. In Psicosis' case, I just can't take to him with another gimmick. I suppose that's a testament to how good he was as Psicosis, but it's unfortunate. I wonder if he would have done better if he'd had the rights to the Psicosis name or had chosen a better gimmick than Nicho el Millonario. I suppose he went on to have a lengthy career regardless. The miraculous thing about this bout was that it had a clean finish. Wonders never cease.

Dave Taylor vs. Owen Hart (Wien '90) This was better than the Finlay match largely because it was Owen working an Owen Hart touring match instead of a Fit Finlay brawl. Owen Hart touring matches aren't really my thing right now, but it's not every day you see Owen wrestle Dave Taylor.