ohtani's jacket

The Tokyo Dome has a capacity of 55k. Any figure above that is worked.

His latter stuff is trash, but in this early 80s period his work is surprisingly good. I'm not gonna say he's a lost great worker or anything, but he'd no longer be on a list of worst workers ever.

Mongo Le Primitif vs. Patrick Lopez (8/1/84) This is not as shocking the second time you see it. I'd love to know who his entourage were. My guess is that they were either local musicians or some type of cultural group. At any rate, they provide a steady beat for Mongo to wrestle to. An argument can be made that the wrestler playing Mongo doesn't do a particularly convincing job of depicting an ape man. He should be ripping muthas' heads off, but he's about as savage as Curious George. Look out! Over the top rope Tope Suicida in France, 1984. Didn't see that coming. I liked Mongo hanging with his boys afterward.

He's a straight Flash Gordon ripoff, though. I guess he took the Flesh Gordon name to avoid any legal trouble. He's a pretty good worker, too. The only knock I would have on him is if he's in charge of the book. In that case, these shitty gimmicks are on him.

Flesh Gordon & Angelito vs. Les Piranhas (aired 7/18/84) This was Gordon and Angelito against two guys in piranhas costumes. No, I'm not making that up. At first I thought, "Am I being too hard on this? I mean if this were Mexico and they wrestling Ninja Turtles or Thundercats, I'd think it was awesome." But no, it was terrible. Georges Cohen vs. Anton Terejo (aired 7/18/84) I spoke too soon about Cohen. This was a fun little bout. Terejo was clearly a million times better than the Marquis at taking Cohen's offense. If you like Terejo then you'll appreciate that the bugger could still go. Note how good a foil he was for stylists like Cohen and Le Petit Prince. Linda Blair vs. Nicky McDonald (aired 7/21/84) These were a couple of British girls. I think Nicky McDonald may have been Nicky Monroe. If I'm not mistaken this was the first time women's wrestling had been shown on TV. It was pretty basic but better than piranhas and primitives. But it was another of those matches that kept cutting to a fake studio interview with Delaporte, and that bald-headed guy with the moustache arguing with his girlfriend at ringside. I think we saw him before in the Franz van Buyten vs. Bob UFO match from the same show.

I have a hard time believing that anything on Terrace House is real. It all looks staged to me. It wouldn't surprise me if the costume incident was fake. The abuse was real, however. And she's not the first cast member to be bullied. Some of the other cast members have commented about her death: https://soranews24.com/2020/05/24/terrace-house-stars-condemn-cyberbullying-after-death-of-housemate-hana-kimura/

It's possible she was unwell before joining Terrace House. She may have had the potential to be a superstar but it seems she was struggling.

More importantly, why does Chief Strongbow's wife want him to quit wrestling?

Walter Bordes & Flesh Gordon vs. The Golden Falcons (aired 8/13/83) This was really good. I thought it was better than the first Bordes & Gordon tag and the first Falcons tag. It had a real lucha feel to it with a South American twist. Add Bordes' flair and you had a nice cocktail. They added some dramatics with Gordon being busted open and needing medical assistance. It was two-on-one for a while until Gordon returned with a bandaged head. I would have lost my shit over this if I'd been a French kid in '83. Guy Mercier vs. Marcel Montreal (aired 8/27/83) Is this the last of the old-school catch matches? This wasn't a great match, but you have to appreciate two lumpy old guys going out there and wrestling like men. Jacky Richard & Albert Sanniez vs. Jean Corne & Kader Hassouni (aired 9/3/83) These guys may not have known it, but this was a good bye to the classic era of catch. The so-called "les Trente Glorieuses" And it's not a bad match to go out on at all. They look a little old to begin with, but once they warm up it's the catch of old. I love the reaction they get from the spectators. One of the defining things about catch has been the passion it brought out in the spectators. The passion here was as pleasing as the exchanges. And again, I have to say Jean Corne will go down as one of the all-time great catcheurs in my eyes. Black Shadow vs. Angelito (aired 2/25/84) There was nothing to this bout. It was JIP and we only saw a few exchanges, We've seen both these guys before on YouTube. Walter Bordes & Flesh Gordon vs. Les Maniak (aired 2/25/84) It's a brave new world. I'm curious who had the book at this stage and what the promotion was. It seems that shitty gimmicks were the order of the day. Les Maniak were billed from Mexico, but I have no idea if they were luchadores or not. I guess their gimmick was supposed to be deranged killers. Maybe they were trying to recreate the cover from Metal Health. I guess this was all right since it was a Bordes & Gordon match. They're a pretty good tag team and Bordes is still a top 30(?) wrestler in Europe at this point. But it was silly compared to the catch we know. Marquis Edouard Fumolo De La Rossignolette vs. Georges Cohen (aired 2/25/84) Jesus, what a name. To call this ordinary would be an insult to ordinary matches everywhere. The least said about the Marquis the better. If I were a wrestler, the last thing I'd try to do is steal gimmicks that have been done better by dozens of wrestlers throughout the history of catch. I love Cohen but he was running in fumes at this point. Catch looks done but there's still a couple of dozen matches to go.

This is some awful shit. I worry about the affect bullying might have on my daughter, her friends and the kids I teach. Don't people on social media realize that Terrace House is a work?

Oh, it's no contest. La Bete Humaine doesn't have a posse.

Le Primitif vs. Eliot Frederico (aired 7/18/84) This was the strangest thing I've seen in catch. It was a guy in a monkey suit pretending to be a primitive. He had a group of African tribesmen at ringside beating a drum and spurring him on. They jumped up and down whenever he was winning, and threatened to shoot people with bows and arrows when he wasn't. The fucked up thing about it is that we have about half a dozen of this guy's matches on tape.

Rene Lasartesse vs. Johnny Saint (Hamburg '87) It's not every day you see Rene Lasartesse wrestle Johnny Saint. Saint didn't have much of a chance, but again he showed a toughness that you don't ordinarily see from him. I guess he had to wrestling heavyweights every night. Lasartesse showed Saint the right amount of respect in terms of the offense it took to put Johnny away, and then van Buyten appeared to challenge him to a chain match. I guess I know what I'll be watching next.

Daniel Schmid & Remy Bayle vs. Paco Ramirez & Gilbert Wherle (aired 7/1/83) Daniel Schmid was a big boy, but he could go. If the rest of his matches are like this, I think we might have a cult favourite on our hands. Ramirez was a Spanish worker who spent a lot of time in Mexico. He was a stylist, but wasn't able to stamp his mark on this bout. I hesitate to say anything bad about him because he died of cancer in '84. Wherle's biggest claim to fame is that he trained with Andre and Le Petit Prince. He didn't show me much, but he did have a decent forearm contest with Bayle. I wanna see if Schmid is always this fun. Eliot Frederico & Kato Bruce Lee vs. Flesh Gordon & Walter Bordes (aired 7/9/83) Herve is back again, but this time as Flesh Gordon. I was interested in the backstory behind this. Apparently, Jean Corne brought Herve into the business in the mid-70s. Herve says he was part of the Celts, so perhaps he replaced Falempin as Corne's tag partner. According to Herve, he didn't like the fact that wrestlers wore underpants and idiotic robes. He had a better idea and started fashioning a gimmick for himself based on the Flash Gordon movie. Now you'd think a gimmick patterned after Flash Gordon would be pretty spectacular. After all, it's Flash, ah ah, King of the Impossible. Herve wasn't bad. He was apparently influenced by lucha after a trip to Mexico, and he comes across as a decent technico. It's patently obvious that the Eurosport shit that come later was not the same idealist that we see here. But you can see that he's not as good as an aging Bordes let alone the phenom that he'd need to be to really be a draw. I was surprised by how much Bordes resembled Ben Chemoul in this match. It was almost like he had adopted his former partner's role. There was some fun stuff from the Gordon/Bordes team, but their opponents were weak. Guy Mercier & Marcel Montreal vs. Fred Magnier & Yasu Fuji (aired 7/30/83) It's been an age since I've seen a Yasu Fuji match, and I hope it's an age before I have to see another one. This wasn't as bad as I was dreading. The file was 54 minutes long so I had this horrific notion that this was some kind of broadway match, but the first half of the file was a kind of French improv show like Who's Line Is It Anyway? and a few French commercials like a commercial for women's underwear that gives you a shapely bottom. This had a lot of clobbering. The kind of shit you'd expect from a heavyweight like Fuji. But it also had three old-school catcheurs in Mercier, Montreal and Magnier, so it wasn't all bad. I mean right across the channel they were headlining with Big Daddy tags. This was at least better than a British main event.

Jacky Corn vs. Rafael Blasco (aired 11/29/57) This was from a venue I hadn't seen before, Le cynodrome de Courbevoie, which I believe was a greyhound trace track up until 1951. I don't know if Rafael Blasco wrestled this way all the time, but if he did it was an exciting style. He absolutely pummeled Corn. I was surprised because usually it's Corn dishing it out. I thought for sure that Corn was taking the punishment because he was getting the win, so the finish was a bit of a shock. Liano Pellacani vs. Black Salem (aired 11/29/57) Black Salem was billed from Ethiopia and that's about all I know about him. He had a similar physique to someone like Masambula as opposed to the hulks we've seen like Mammouth Siki, Jimmy Dula and Earl Maynard. It looked like he might have had some cool leg scissors spots. Pellacani was brilliant here. He was every bit as good as Delaporte at working the crowd. The difference was that it was a nastier, meaner reaction. There were fans who actually wanted to attack him. I was surprised that he kept his cool when he had his head draped on the apron and a fan struck him across the throat. I'm sure there's been a fair few wrestlers who would have gone apeshit if a fan did that. It's a shame that Pellacani only appears once more on tape (aside from one appearance where he's introduced before a bout.) He's definitely been one of the highlights of the '57 footage.

Le Petit Prince & Gerard Bouvet vs. Anton Tejero & Albert Sanniez (aired 7/24/82) French wrestling may have been going down the tubes at this point, but the one thing it could still do well was a tag match. If you look at the cards from this era, you'll see a series of lousy main events, but there's always one tag match on every show that carries on the traditions of French catch. This was another of those matches. It was full of classic exchanges that were just as delightful as the era that spawned them. Everything about this match was a throwback even the embrace between Couderc and the Prince and the fans swarming the Prince for an autograph. The bout was over in two falls, which meant it was never going to compete with the likes of the last bout on tape, but it still invoked a sense of nostalgia. Zarak vs. Mammoth Siki (aired 8/28/82) Golden Eagle vs. Remy Bayle (aired 8/28/82) For some reason, there isn't a lot of 80s footage in the archive. I guess the INA cared as much about preserving 80s catch as the people did watching it. These matches are ordinary, but they achieved what they set out to do. You can't hold it against them that they're not hidden gems. The 80s stockpile is tiny. and unless there were collectors taping everything off TV, this is as close a window we're getting into how the final years unfolded.

Jacky Richard & Albert Sanniez vs. Jean Corne & Rene Cabellec (aired 9/8/80) This was my kind of match. It was like a French version of a maestros tag. I can see people being frustrated by the layout here. Neither team was trying hard to win, and the match didn't build toward any sort of climax. Instead, what we got was great exchange after another. Roger Delaporte ran a tight ship and stayed the fuck out of the way, which surprised me. He operated like a French version of Max Ward. He was biased towards the baby faces and didn't let the heels get away with anything, presumably because of the other refs in the promotion who got in the baby faces' way and cost them matches. In that sense, I suppose he was still one of the stars of the show. The guy who impressed me here was Corne. I thought he was sensational. In fact, I thought he was head and shoulders above anyone in the 80s footage so far. The match ended in a draw, and they did a finish that Joint Promotions used to use where the ref decides the winner. Of course, Delaporte raised the faces' hands. He seemed to like this finish, but judging by the matches that follow, he may have overused it a tad. Guy Mercier vs. Jack de Lassartesse (aired 10/5/81) This was a typical Lassartesse match. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. This one was bad. He spent the first half of the match dominating with some pretty lacklustre offence. I'm not sure if it looked bad because Lassartesse was uninspired or Mercier wasn't selling it well, but I've seen enough matches where Lassartesse is compelling on offense to know that this was lousy. Lassartesse dominating for such a long stretch didn't really help. I thought the match would have better served with a back and forth struggle. Mercier might not be the best wrestler we've seen in this footage. He's kind of a Leduc clone without the presence and aura. But he barely got a look in on offense and he was neutered by the match layout. The match went to a draw, and Delaporte made the ridiculous decision to award the match to Mercier despite Lassartesse being miles ahead on points. This match was just a waste of time. I love Lassartesse, so it's disappointing when he doesn't deliver. Jacky Richard & Guy Renault vs. Jean Corne & Rene Cabellec (aired 10/12/81) This was in circulation already, but what a brilliant match. This was the first match to blend 80s maestro action with a dramatic match structure and deliver an honest to goodness classic. The way they achieved this is that the heels scored an early pinfall, then they worked an extremely long second fall that took up the majority of the bout. So you had all these great maestro exchanges, but everyone was aware of the stakes. Corne and Cabellec have definitely been the best thing about this 80s footage. Corne was sensational again, but Cabellec also showed plenty of fire. The crowd hung on every comeback that Corne and Cabellec made, and even though the final stanza was short, the action was fantastic. Ranking the matches so far: 1. Jacky Richard & Guy Renault vs. Jean Corne & Rene Cabellec (aired 10/12/81) 2. Jacky Richard & Albert Sanniez vs. Jean Corne & Rene Cabellec (aired 9/8/80) 3. Le Petit Prince & Claude Rocca vs. Bob Remy & Anton Tejero (aired 8/18/80) And, finally, a tribute to Corne:

I saw that translation as well, but I don't remember Guajaro using a choke hold.

Interesting. I assumed they were a couple of regulars just like the British wrestlers who donned masks, but they definitely look like Halcon de Oro I & II.

Indio Guajaro vs. Dave Taylor (Hamburg 10/2/87) Apparently, Guajaro was known as "Der Wurger" in Germany (or Hamburg), which in this case I think translates to The Wrecker. You know what you're getting with Guajaro, but I think he does the gimmick better than most. This match had tremendous heat. The crowd was right behind Taylor and did their best to get under Guajaro's skin. The action was forgettable, but the crowd heat made up for it. It's not often you see Taylor get this kind of heat and he reveled in it.

Phi Lions, it's an honour. Gerard Herve & Tony LaMotta vs. The Golden Falcons (aired 8/11/80) Gerard Herve was a young Flesh Gordon. He was pretty good considering he'd go on to become one of the worst workers in history. I have no idea who the Golden Falcons were. They worked a generic masked man style, which I guess they had to so no-one suspected who they were. I didn't think much of their work. The best parts of the match where when Herve and LaMotta were in control. LaMotta reminded me of Bert Royal and did some neat stuff. The trouble with these 80s tags is that they're too long. The wear down sections are boring and the refs get involved too often. If they'd made this a one fall, twenty minute bout, it would have been much tighter. Le Petit Prince & Claude Rocca vs. Bob Remy & Anton Tejero (aired 8/18/80) This was the best 80s match so far. When I saw Anton Tejero's name in the match listings, I thought there was no way he could still go. Then when I saw him during the intros, I thought, "Jesus, he looks like Orig Williams." But he was really good. Remy, too. They showed the value of a good rudo team in these lengthy French tags. The match would have been better if we'd seen some vintage Prince FIP, but there was enough going on to make up for it. The ref was a pain in the arse again, but I guess I'll have to get used to him being the 5th man in the ring. I did like the second aiding and assisting the Prince with a cigarette still in his mouth. But there are wilder and better matches from the 70s.

Changing tack here and focusing on the 80s stuff. Walter Bordes vs. Zarak (aired 3/1/80) Bordes brought a strap to the ring, and for a second I thought we'd be getting a strap match, but it was a challenge that Zarak keep refusing, apparently. This was a solid bout, but formulaic. It was one of those bouts where the babyface wants to go after the heel, but the ref keeps stopping him. The ref and the babyface start to beef, and the worse it gets, the easier it is for the heel to cheat. It all comes to a head, and the ref screws over the babyface. From what I've seen, the refs get involved far too much in 80s catch. I wanted to see Zarak and Bordes take the gloves off, but the ref spoiled it. The highlight of the bout was a big lucha style bump into the second or third row. Afterward, Bordes had his strap ready for Zarak to accept the challenge. I'd like to think that match happened. I'd also like to think that Bordes was still one of the best wrestlers in Europe if he can cut through the bullshit. Jo Gonzales & Pedro Gomez vs. Bruno Asquini & Guy Mercier (aired 8/4/80) I'm pretty sure Michel Saulnier was the ref here, and once again, too involved. He took so many bumps you'd think he wanted to one of the participants. This was supposed to be a bit of everything like those great Petit Prince vs. Noced tags from the 70s, but there weren't any outstanding performances. Gonzales was the best of the bunch, but he didn't bring much depth to his role. There was one exaggerated sell and that was about it. If everyone had been on their game, I'm sure this would have been electrifying, but I found it boring.

I like his series with Vader.

Michel Chaisne vs. Gilbert Leduc (aired 9/20/57) I was disappointed we didn't get all of this given how much TV time they've given Chaisne. It was impossible to gauge how good the match was from the little that aired. It was billed as the World Light Heavyweight champion vs. the French Mid-Heavyweight champion, but I'm not sure if either man held a title at the time. I wonder what happened to the master tape of this. The ITV vaults hold the master tapes of the wrestling, but the INA must only have the broadcast tapes. Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Joachim La Barba (aired 9/20/57) It's no secret that I've been disappointed by Ben Chemoul so far. Everyone talks him up as the guy, the way they used to talk Saint up as the guy. I think Jetlag hit the nail on the head when he described Ben Chemoul as more of a Vic Faulkner type (another guy who infuriated me with his approach to wrestling.) This wasn't a bad match, but it lacked the toughness we've seen from the rest of 50s catch. I can see why a generation of fans were entertained by Ben Chemoul, but I haven't been convinced by him on the mat. Considering how hard they push the Greco-Roman origins of catch, and the way they try to sell catch as the legit professional branch of amateur Greco-Roman, you'd think Ben Chemoul would show a bit more grit on the mat. La Barba seemed like a special talent heading into this bout, but he couldn't stamp his personality on the match and ended going along for the ride. I bet that happened to a lot of people in Ben Chemoul's bouts. Maybe they liked it. Perhaps it was an easy night. In any case, it didn't click for me. Guy Robin vs. Eric Taylor (aired 10/4/57) This was a really early Eric Taylor match. In fact, he'd only made his debut on British TV the month before. I thought it was interesting that he fought Guy Robin just as Al Hayes and the Fisher brothers had. I wonder if there was a reason why Robin fought the British lads. Perhaps his English was good. I was excited when I learned that we had a Taylor match. Taylor is one of those guys that Walton used to talk about ALL the time. He was a wrestler's wrestler, and one of the stars of the early 60s. He quit Joint Promotions in the mid-60s and began working for the independent promoters, but he sure as hell left an impression on Walton. I thought he was good. I'm sure he was even better in the 60s, but for a young talent he did a stand-up job. Robin's not really the type to chew the scenery so he gave Taylor enough chance to shine. The match seemed to run a bit short, though, as the commentator had to bullshit his way through the beginning of the next match which was a guy who doing a Butch Cassidy gimmick against a guy named Monsieur X, whom the commentator thought was a gorgeous viking. Oh, and that damn martian was at ringside. One more match for your troubles: Lino Di Santo vs. The Big Chief (aired 10/15/59) The Big Chief had a huge headdress and made a spectacular entrance. He was a huge, muscular guy who worked a brutal, direct style. I have no idea who he was. We're familiar with Lino Di Santo. His job was to get the shit beaten out of him, and get the shit beaten out of him he did. The doctor was checking on him when The Big Chief grew impatient and began stomping the shit out of the injured Di Santo. The ref threw him out, and the Chief went apeshit. Kaiser and Co. had nothing on this guy. He was a fuckin' loose cannon. He chased a fan into the crowd before being escorted to the back. I've got to be honest, it was better than most matches with fake Native Americans.

Terry Rudge vs. Johnny Saint (Hamburg 10/4/87) I forgot how awesome this is. I wish we had the whole thing. If Saint had fights like this more often, he'd be one of my favorites from this era. I love the number Rudge did on Saint here, especially stomping his fingers. Can't do your usual tricks if your fingers are busted. I admired the toughness Saint showed here. The finish was badass. I love it when guys sell a roll up like a walk off homer. This was short but sweet.