ohtani's jacket

A brawling trios between these teams? Count me in. I had forgotten that El Signo was a replacement for Wagner in the Panther & Warrior trio. Watching Signo have this late run is a blast. The focal point, however, is Panther's chemistry with the Villanos. I would have loved to have seen a Panther vs. Villano III match from around this time. Part of the fun of being a lucha fan is discovering matches where your favorites wrestled each other, but even more fun are the daydreams.

Chikayo Nagashima is a favorite of mine, but she didn't stand a chance here. This was a KAORU brawl with a bunch of plunder. There were a few nice spots here and there, but KAORU doesn't match my image of a wrestler. She's a performer and not the type of competitor I can get into. I almost thought this was a pointless upload until Nagashima pulled off the surprise upset. Then I felt a bit stupid. Nice win.

Awful then, and awful now. I'd love to say this was an epic war, but it was so far removed from anything that I like in Joshi that I honestly thought it was stupid. I'm not against brawling as an alternative to the go-go-go style of Joshi, but 50 minutes of early 00s garbage brawling is not my idea of a great Joshi brawl.

Here is the list of stuff that hasn't been transferred -- http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=005317

The WWE had a false copyright claim on that match. The guy who sponsored the Gunkel match brought it to their attention and they were able to reverse it. Apparently, the next match he is sponsoring is either Jack Desek vs Fritz Von Schacht or Rocky Columbo vs Larry Chene. These matches aren't on the list that Ken Viewer made. I will keep digging for a better list.

This is the only info I could find -- http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=004666

Hans Schmidt vs. Ray Gunkel... Apparently, you can sponsor the Chicago Film Archives to release any of the footage they haven't uploaded. I don't know how much it costs, but some dude wanted to see more Ray Gunkel after watching the Thesz match that aired on The Network. Gunkel vs. Schmidt seems like a great find, but unfortunately it's a film clip with no sound that only covers the first fall. Disappointing in the extreme. Ray Stevens vs. Al Fredericks from Australia, 1969... I don't know how rare or important this is, but at least it was a chance to see Ray Stevens look a little closer to the Ric Flair inspiration that he was always touted as. To be honest, he kind of looks like the love child between Dick Murdoch and Ric Flair, but he's entertaining. Fredericks is apparently Paul Jones. He's pretty good in the fiesty babyface role. Stevens cuts a nice promo afterward.

Yay, Osaka Pro! This wasn't the slickest match. In fact, there wasn't a lot that stood out considering how good these guys are. But I was happy to see the Osaka Pro guys back in action. They've been a beacon of light in a pretty dreary Japan scene, and even if they weren't firing on all cylinders it was still better a lot of the other promotions. Hopefully, they can hide their stride again soon.

This was a good match, but in all honesty I thought the Benoit/Austin Edmonton match was better. This didn't get hot until the missed tag. The finishing stretch was good but the first half was nothing special. And even the finishing stretch wasn't some kind of iconic, all-time great finishing stretch. It was well executed, and Triple H deserves props for toughing it out, but it didn't feel like Jericho and Benoit had won the Superbowl or the World Series. It was just a nice piece of business.

I hadn't watched this match in nearly 20 years. At the time, we thought All Japan Women's was having a renaissance and would go on to survive in the same way that modern New Japan has. Little did we know that All Japan would fold within a few years and that Momoe would retire young and start a family. Watching this 20 years on, there's nothing here that would bother a Joshi fan. For every criticism you could make, the reply would be "that's Joshi." They don't do anything that wasn't already well established in the genre. You can criticize this type of match until the cows come home, but it will never change anything. There are Joshi matches where the selling is better, the transitions are better, the offense is better, but those are outliers. Joshi is a fast-paced "go-go-go" style of wrestling, and whatever's happening next is usually more important than the transition, or the sequence, that led to it. This was a 30 minute draw, but I wasn't bored once. They both fought hard. On the surface, Maekawa should have won, but Momoe had those famous All Japan guts. There are flaws, and there is excess, but show me a men's match with as much heart. At least these girls were trying to keep the classic style alive. It may have been futile in the long run, but to me this bout was worthy of the 90s Joshi that proceeded it.

This was supposed to be Relevos Increibles, but before the bout there was a cheesy vignette that would have warmed the heart of any B movie director, where Satanico used his demonic powers to transform Rencor Latino into a prototype version of Averno. And then when they were wrestling, Mascara Magica was way too into partnering with Ultimo Guerrero. But the bout itself was much better than the Ultimo/Satanico mano a mano. There was urgency and intensity, and the bout moved at the right clip. I was kind of surprised by how easily Satanico and prototype-Averno were disposed of in the end, but the match held my interest the entire way.

This was okay, I guess, but I'd rather watch their classics then watch them run through their greatest hits.

This was a great match. Austin was amazing in this match. This wasn't just the touring champ against the hometown hero. There was all the emotion of Austin's heel turn mixed with the hometown hero's title shot. I love how Austin wrestles like a rattlesnake during this run. The best part in the match is when he gives Benoit that suplex into the announcer's table and pushes the cameraman out of the way as the adrenaline starts to flow. This was laid out superbly for a television match and was good enough to be on a pay-per-view. You could see the TV finish coming a mile away, but it was expertly handled. This was head and shoulders above anything I've seen from May thus far.

These two had great chemistry. This was easily the best pairing I have seen in May. The finish went over like a lead balloon. Everyone was clearly sick of Montreal references in 2001 except for Vince. But the finish couldn't change the fact that these two had serious chemistry.

Michel Chaisne vs. Jo Labat (aired 2/27/58) This started with Ami Sola getting a win, which I wish we'd seen since he's become something of a favorite among our Catch circle, but always seems to do job on TV. Then they introduced Cheri Bibi to the wrestlers and crowd. If you want my honest opinion, Cheri Bibi can stay far away from Catch, but the opposite happens as far as the footage goes. After Bibi leaves, we get the match. And it's a good one. It's a shame we don't know more about the backstage goings on from this era, but it can't be a coincidence that Chaisne has been on television so many times. The promoters must have seen some sort of potential in him. I can only imagine the promoters at the time were always on the look out for a new heavyweight star. I'm not sure how things panned out with Chaisne. His name appears on a lot of 60s bills, but there's nothing to suggest he became a big name. At this point he was a classy young heavyweight. This was a nice technical bout. It seems as though they had a heckler in the beginning. Hecklers always bothered me in the WoS footage, but I can't understand what's being said here. Every time they stood up and worked an exchange they got a warm response, and they actually looked really great doing those exchanges. The matwork was fine as well, but the part I really liked was when Labat starting laying in his shots. We've all seen the formula by now where they work a long technical match and start throwing forearms. This match had some really interesting shots from Labat. His stock kind of rose with me because of it. The quality of wrestling in '58 has been just as good as '57 thus far, and the week to week quality of the wrestling continues to be unparalleled in any episodic TV that I've ever seen.

This was a decent match but unconvincing. Am I really supposed to believe that Shinjiro Ohtani can beat Otsuka with BattlARTS rules? While he was still a junior in 2000, I thought Ohtani remained one of the better workers in Japan, but shoot style was never one of his strengths. This should have been a mismatch, but Otsuka is so often the job boy in these situations. I hated the use of pro-style moves. It's a pet peeve of mine in shoot style. That was the kiss of death as far as me recommending this.

This was good, but I wanted it to be life-changing. These guys were awesome against each other in tag matches, but their singles matches don't use the same elements as the tag bouts. They try too hard to have quasi fights when they should be out and out brawling. Their styles don't really mesh well as MMA, and I hate the way that Ishikawa always jobs. I know people love this feud, but their singles bouts leave me cold.

To be honest, this was probably the most entertaining match from May. The exchanges were slow and telegraphed, but there was an urgency to the bout and everything flowed well. Matches like these show how valuable Atlantis was as the glue in trios matches. It helped that 75% of his career matches were against these guys (which may, or may not, be an exaggeration), but I found him entertaining in this. Especially for a guy in no-program land. When you don't have a program in CMLL, it's easy to fade into the background. CMLL, at the best of times, is a blur of trios matches. But Atlantis stood out here. If you don't like the Capos, this will be a yawn, but if you like their dopey shit with Rayo, you'll know exactly what to expect.

This is rudos contra rudos, but Apolo Dantes is conflicted about whether they should be attacking Shocker. He agonizes over the decision until he can it no more, and attacks his partners instead. The rudos soap opera continues.

Wagner was a bit of a rock star at this point. He spent so much time working in Japan that he only made limited appearances in Mexico. The fact that we get a Dr. Wagner Jr singles match is a good thing. The fact that it's against Hijo del Lizmark is unfortunate. There's not a lot of good things you can say about Hijo del Lizmark. I guess he had a couple of moves that looked okay, but everything about him, from the way he moved in the ring to his selling and mannerisms, is a turn off. Wagner made a match out of it, and for all Lizmark's shortcomings it was probably more entertaining than the Ultimo Guerrero vs. Satanico match, but it was a truncated 2/3 falls match with a few New Japan leanings that didn't really mesh with the level of opponent. Won't make any end of year lists, but I guess it was nice to see Wagner in Mexico.

Bit of a lightweight match but it sets up a mano a mano the following week between Wagner and Lizmark.

This took forever to start with both Shocker and Silver King cutting promos, and Mr. Niebla coming out to replace SK for reasons I wasn't following. Once it started, the action was pretty good. Casas has nothing to do at this point, but we get to see him work with Zumbido here, which is nice. Your mileage may vary on how much you care about him working with Bestia for the millionth time, but it's a pairing that I always enjoy. I forget how good even a washed up La Fiera is. This was a nice, tidy win for the tecnicos, and the bout was clean, which was a blessing.

This coulda had class. It coulda been a contender. I like how CMLL brought back rudos contra rudos at this time, and reinstated the importance of mano a mano bouts. Two perfectly good throwback moves. I also like the storm they created between Satanico and Ultimo Guerrero. This could have been intense, short and indecisive and it wouldn't have mattered so long as it kicked ass. But this didn't kick ass. Instead, it danced around it. It pushed the storyline further, but not in a way that kept me begging for more.

I took a long break from this stuff so I need to relearn the lay of the land. This is rudos contra rudos. Satanico hates Ultimo Guerrero. Ultimo Guerrero hates Satanico. Shocker hates Bestia Salvaje and Emilio Charles Jr. Bestia Salvaje & Emilio Charles Jr hate Shocker. And Black Warrior's the guy wondering "why can't we all be friends?" This had some decent moments, but it was hardly red hot considering Satanico and Ultimo were about to have a singles match. Ultimo Guerrero fouled Satanico with a foreign object, which I guess is a step up from a low blow, but doesn't bode well for their mano a mano.

Clipping hurt the flow of this, but there was enough shown to get general idea. The best pairing was Virus vs. Marvin. If you're a lucha fan, you'll know that a lot of the time you watch matches like these to see one particular pairing. Virus and Marvin weren't otherworldly here, but they were good enough that I'm gladly watch anything they did together. The other workers were serviceable. Solar wasn't at his best, but I was happy enough with what Virus and Marvin gave me.