ohtani's jacket

This picked up where they left off the week before. Wagner and Tiger have different partners but the action is the same. Sadly, I don't think leads anywhere except for a few weeks of hot trios matches, but at least it breathed some fresh air into the CMLL footage.

It didn't take Silver King long to be repackaged as Black Tiger. I thought he was going to be a Guapo when he made his debut. Now he's wearing lipstick and a mask and pretending to be a Japanese wrestler who can't speak Spanish well. Vampiro was wearing a corset. It was weird. The match was hot. It was no-nonsense, all-action stuff. No slow, meandering rudo falls. They went straight at it, and Black Tiger vs. Wagner emerged as something I definitely need to keep track of. Atlantis gets absolutely drilled by Wagner's Michinoku Driver and has been stretchered out.

This was a fun match. It would have been better in IWRG, but I liked the throwback ending with Villano throwing a row of chairs at Signo and the match being thrown out. That could have been the ending to any Arena Mexico mano a mano contest from 1980-89.

Cheri Bibi vs. Jacky Corn (aired 12/12/62) When I saw this pop up on the match listings, I thought if Corn could get a good match out of Bibi then he'd be one of the greats. After it was done, you could have scrapped my jaw off the floor. It wasn't just good. It was jaw dropping. Bibi looked like the baddest mother on the planet in this match. And when Corn took over on offense, he wasn't far behind. I often wonder what the other wrestlers thought of Corn. Did they respect him as a wrestler or hate him because he was the promoter's son? Did Bibi work harder here because of Corn's old man? I guarantee you won't see another Bibi match where he pays this much attention to detail. He's like a super worker with every hold. If this was the first Bibi match you saw, you'd want to seek out everything he did. Which begs the question, why couldn't Bibi work like this all the time? The match was amazing, and the finish left me shocked. Corn is an all-timer in my books.

Visit Luchablog.

This was another solid match between these two, but the highlight of the bout was Austin on commentary (and that's saying something considering Angle misses a moonsault from the top and Benoit hits a diving headbutt.) I thought Austin and JR were going to crack up at first when they started throwing barbs at each other. Austin picking on JR is mean, but funny. JR gets in a few licks and Austin's retorts are brilliant. Austin gets involved in the finish, as expected, but I loved the execution and the overall booking. When the WWF is on point, there's not much that can touch it in these years.

It was fun watching these guys have the type of match they couldn't really have in Mexico due to the stylistic differences. It's been a while since we've seen Shocker really bust loose as he's mostly been embroiled in his feud with the Guapos. What a talent he was. Probably the biggest discovery I've had revisiting this 2000-01 stuff is how good Shocker was. I usually prefer watching guys in their natural setting, but props to Shocker for being able to adapt to the New Japan juniors scene. Another feather in the cap of one of the new millennium's best wrestlers.

This was a textbook example of Liger giving the rub to a lesser opponent. He made Inoue look like a threat, and made it seem like he belonged in the tournament. With Inoue's black hair and trunks, and exasperated selling style, it was almost like watching Liger take on a young Ohtani.

Nice to see a longer Regal match. If you squint, you can almost see him wrestling Robbie Brookside. Both guys added their usual touches, but it was clear they were trying to work the house style. That's not such a bad thing since it's a pretty good house style, IMO, but they were times when it felt like they were trying extra hard to hard their "marks," so to speak. I always forget that Regal was a legit heavyweight until I see a match like this where he has to hunch over the entire time. Decent match, but somebody wasn't convinced as they didn't run it at Judgment Day.

This was every bit as dramatic and emotional as I remembered. A great performance from Hokuto and a tremendous swan song. The decision to not have her make the count from her own move was unorthodox, but memorable. This time round, her costume reminded me of Rose of Versailles, and there was definitely an element of Oscar's death to the whole thing. Ozaki was great with the anguished pleas, and Hokuto's selling was sublime. Satomura flailed about too much in a bid to show her intensity, but apart from the silly wind up charge of hers it wasn't too distracting. This was Hokuto's masterpiece. Satomura was there for the ride. Even though she got a rub from this, it could have been any opponent and Hokuto would have been just as transcendent. To that extent, Aja vs. Satomura is a better feud, but what a performance from Hokuto.

This was enjoyable. I guess you'd call it a house show version of Benoit vs. Angle, or perhaps a warm up for their Judgement Day match. I liked the fact that it was a straight match with no bullshit. It gave you a chance to focus on their wrestling, which is the best part of the feud.

This was worked like a RAW main event. The lay out was simple but the execution was good. I'm guessing it wasn't the follow up people wanted to see after Austin's heel turn, but it wasn't bad.

I thought this was better than their Wrestlemania match. I was surprised that they stuck to the submission stip for the entire bout. I thought for sure they'd run out of steam and start doing some Attitude Era style brawling around the ringside era and on the announcer's table. I feel like these two have a perfect match in them. They didn't nail it here, but were getting closer.

The first fall was a flash pin. The second fall was a competitive and enjoyable submission match. The third fall was a ladder match. Now I'm not a fan of ladder matches, but I was prepared to accept the stip for what it was. Those were the rules they agreed to before the bout and that was how the match was billed heading into the pay-per-view. I had no problem with any of that. But the finish... that was the softest finish they could possibly book. To me, it eradicated any enjoyment I had from the bout (which was basically the second fall), and made the 30 minutes I invested in it seem like a a waste of time. I don't care that it was screwy. I am accustomed to screwy WWF finishes. If you're going to end it with a run in, at least lay the guy out. Make it devastating, not chicken shit. This Benoit vs. Angle stuff is better than I remember wrestling wise, but whoever the road agent or booker was didn't put in their finest work

This is a revancha from the previous week. Mascara Magica comes to the ring wearing Road Warrior shoulder pads. Is he getting a bit cocky? The beating he takes would suggest so. Again, this felt like Averno and Magica added a new element to a bit of a tired feud. I was surprised when the bout came down to Satanico vs. Ultimo, mano a mano, and I popped for the finish. The feud hasn't made me excited in a while. The injection of two new players seems to have helped.

Okay, so I think Satanico has officially renamed Rencor Latino as Averno in one of those cheesy vignettes, while Ultimo Guerrero has recruited Mascara Magica to sub for the injured Tarzan Boy. The additions of Averno and Magica seem to light a fire under this feud. The action is more intense than in recent weeks, and we finally get back to something resembling the feud at its best.

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.