ohtani's jacket

Decent little match. Could have been a great match if they'd been given more time. I'm looking forward to revisiting Finlay's WWE run.

Thanks, Phil. I was vaguely aware of this story thanks to old French TV guide articles but was unsure about the full details.

Terrible news.

Ha, I belong to the Commonwealth so technically I can say whatever I want.

Excellent bio. Japanese wiki says he had been in rough shape for a while. He had surgery for prostate cancer in 2017 and suffered from a heart attack in 2018. Ayako revealed in November of last year that he was in hospital in critical condition with breathing and feeding tubes inserted. Apparently, he made a recovery and was able to leave hospital last month before succumbing to whatever illness it was.

That's a nice idea, but there were very few instances of this actually happening. Especially televised rematches. Let people decide for themselves, I say.

You tell me why they booked that finish then. Do you think it's the perfect finish to the bout? Would you have booked it differently? You can have a test match that ends in a draw and folks still remember a sparkling century or an incredible bowling performance, so I don't think anyone would outright dismiss a Marty Jones vs. Caswell Martin match (and they shouldn't since those were two of the finest workers in the business at that time), but I cannot imagine anyone thinking "boy, I'm glad they booked the finish that way."

There is no group think on this topic. It's not American fans watching British wrestling matches. Its wrestling fans watching wrestling matches and discussing them. If people have differing opinions on the merits of certain tropes then open it up for debate. Honestly, "you're not British so you can't understand why this finish is good" will turn people off from watching the matches. For years, people watched Japanese and Mexican wrestling without understanding the language, the culture or the people, liked the matches for different reason than the Japanese and Mexican fans did, and dismissed things that the audiences likely enjoyed, but you cannot control that type of thing once the match is out there. It's the equivalent of an artist who is upset because their work is being misinterpreted.

That finish is disappointing, but you accept it and move on. Marty comes across as a classy competitor and the match is basically a draw. It's not the worst finish in the world, but it's hardly what you'd call a good finish. It's a creative way to ensure that never man loses face. To some fans, it probably took on more of a sporting context, but folks are here have seen far more wrestling than most and can see the strings being pulled.

I don't see the point in having an argument over an 8 minute Danny Boy Collins vs. Nipper Riley bout that was JIP. Ten years ago, I said it had some decent action but was nothing overly special. The beginning of the thread lists many matches that I think are special or at the least worth watching. You do not have to be British to enjoy them. You do not have to have grown up watching British wrestling to enjoy them. You do not have to have to enjoy them for the same reasons that British fans enjoyed them. You do not have to understand or appreciate every cultural nuance. You do not have to buy into a narrative about every British fan having impeccable taste in wrestling or a developed palette (this is a crock.) Analyze and dissect them the same as you would with any other form of wrestling. Find the things you like and watch more of it. A lot of the reviews in this thread were extra stuff I watched after I'd burned through everything else. This thread doesn't contain a lot of reviews of the stuff I enjoyed the most. A lot of that was either posted on WKO or in the Microscope.

That's a shame. RIP.

It's a valid criticism. From memory, Jacky Corn was my favorite guy for pushing the pace. I would also recommend checking out the Modesto Aledo match. I can't remember which is the better of his two matches but it might be the one against Teddy Boy.

Are there any matches or workers you've enjoyed so far?

I think Jetlag has made recommendations in the past. My personal interest lays in anything from the 50s. After that, my favorite period was when there was a troupe of lighter weights putting on matches together in the early 70s. There are a few matches I like from the 60s, but there's a big shift towards tag wrestling and I'm not overly fond of European style tag wrestling.

Mate, even I don't know if I'll enjoy a match before I watch it. Franz Schuhmann vs. Steve Wright (Berlin, 2/29/92) This was wrestled in a tiny ring in some sort of Berlin hotel or convention center. The setting reminded me of US indy shows from the same era. There was some decent action but it wasn't much of a match and never rose above the exhibition level. I can't really blame them though as it was an unnatural setting to have a match.

I'm over this Chris Benoit vs. Booker T feud but at least we got some closure here. The match was too long for the crowd's tastes, however they stuck to their guns and worked a fairly solid bout. Booker has a decent act with his wife, and he works had in the ring, but I was grateful that he tapped out so that they can move on from this feud.

This was alright. A little cookie cutter in its execution, but a decent enough match. That ending, though. What a buzz kill. That finally part where Rey was doing his doing his forced acting and walking off in silence was an uncomfortable few minutes. What Debbie downer booked this show?

This was pretty good. It's hard to imagine Undertaker and Angle having a better match. The Deadman doing his faux MMA shit is a stretch of the imagination, but it's better than them working the WWE house style. I did get a chuckle out of Cole trying to sell us on Taker being the best striker in the history of the WWE. Taker delivered a solid performance. It's hard to tell whether his selling is good because of his acting or the fact that he really was so banged up and winded, but it looked good either way. Kurt didn't bring his A game, but I kind of liked that so much of the focus was on the Undertaker. The finish was a clever idea that wasn't executed very well. The commentators did a poor job of selling it, and as cactus mentioned the crowd weren't clued into the fact that the triangle hold could end the match. It's not the first time a clever pin has fallen flat, but it did end things on a limp note. Still, you couldn't have asked for much more from these two.

I don't expect Kellett matches to suddenly turn into serious bouts. It would be great if they did, but a lot of the TV bouts were showcases for a particular star. So, a lot of the time you get a match where there's a really great or interesting worker, and they stuff they do is fascinating, but the match itself is what I called a "four rounder." Sometimes the bouts get heated, but that was a formula in itself. The exceptions were probably title matches and the lighter weight wrestlers. As well as the occasional excellent catchweight bout.

I liked the interplay between Barnes' queer act and Kellett's stereotypical bigotry. Kellett was notoriously difficult to work with, and when you see a Kellett match on TV, you know that it's going to be a Les Kellett match with the other guy along for the ride. Barnes brought a different dimension and so you got a different type of comedy than Kellett poking fun at his opponent and making him look hapless. Kellett probably had better wrestling matches in his career, but based on the footage we have of him, I think Barnes is by far his best matchup.

It happens on some of the footage. It's annoying.

I love the Barnes vs. Kellett matches. (I have another one from the ITV archives.) The subtext is glorious.

Monterrery Thundercats trios matches might fit the bill.

This was a good match, but not the Match of the Year contender you'd expect from two wrestlers of this caliber. In some ways, it suffered from the same shackles as the Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki match in that the commentators couldn't stop talking about how legendary the early ROH bouts were. While it's true that those were the bouts that put ROH on the map, it's a heavy weight to carry around when working a return bout, especially when you know the fanbase has delusions of grandeur about ROH matches being like 90s All Japan. This wasn't a Triple Crown classic but more of a Champion Carnival match. Still a good match, but left you wanting more.

This was supposed to be Joe vs. Daniels but apparently Joe had a staph infection and wasn't cleared to wrestle. So, they gave us this return matchup from the early days of ROH wrestling, which would have been cool if there had been more at stake. They made a go of it, and it was a decent match, but ROH tries to hype every bout as special which makes it stand out more when the workers come up short.