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Atlantis vs. El Satanico (1984) First fall is all Atlantis. He shows his amazing grace from the onset with a great dropkick that sends Satanico regrouping to the outside. He also does a leap up cross body. He hooks on a camel clutch that I thought might be it but Satanico shows his resourcefulness by biting his hand. Atlantis puts him away with a rocking horse type submission that has Satanico reeling to end the first fall. Satanico complains on the outside in between falls and then gets in and starts putting the boots to Atlantis. Atlantis shows he can mix it up in that area and gives some back drops to Satanico and hooks in the abdominal stretch with a cravat variation. Satanico comes firing back with throws into the turnbuckly and outside. Sataico celebrating on the outside and raising his hands in the air is glorious. He puts Atlantis inside the ring and gives him some hip tosses and a elbow drop and finishes it with a pin. He continues to put the beating on him in between the falls. Third fall ups the ante even more with some mask ripping and stiff punches and knees to Atlantis. Satanico is a complete vicious loon just hammering away and biting at him. The ref gets heavily involved by pulling Satanico’s hair to finally pull him off. Atlantis is a bloody mess with it all over his chest. We then get Problemas de Transmission and we go to black and white. This doesn’t detract from the violence though as Satanico continues to put the boots to him. We get a badass king of the mountain spot with Atlantis having to grab one of Satanico’s legs and wrap it around the apron to allow him to get in. We then get revenge spots as Satanico is sent into the corner and Atlantis bites him. Satanico is a bloody mess now. Atlantis goes back to that ab stretch submission but Satanico is able to get in a short elbow and now both competitors are drained and we have a nasty slugfest between the two. Atomic drop from Atlantis gives him the advantage and he follows that up with a backbreaker but Satanico socks him right in the mouth. Atlantis kills him with two beautiful dropkicks and goes for the victory roll but Satanico cuts him off again. Satanico then hooks in the camel clutch but Atlantis fights out of it. Another crazy dropkick sends Satanico to the outside and we get a dive from Atlantis. He goes for a flying headbutt and again Satanico ducks away. Satanico is looking really strong here and this match is a war. Sunset flip gets our closest near fall of the match for Atlantis and now he hits the flying headbutt but he tries again and hits the turnbuckle. Amazing resourcefulness. Santanico then gives him the boots and locks on the submission for the clean as a shit victory. Holy shit was this amazing and told a great story. Both guys come out looking spectacular. I watched this match twice to make sure I wasn’t crazy on first watch but this would be the best match I have seen in 2013 and therefore it deserves the rating I am giving it. *****

I'm shocked at how closely we align so far Parv.

PTBN Daily Update: The PTBN Staff argues John Cena's greatest opponent: http://placetobenation.com/cena-versus/ The Hard Travelling Fanboys countdown their favorite Marvel heroes: http://placetobenation.com/hard-traveling-...-marvel-heroes/ Justin reviews a wrestling heavy ROH: http://placetobenation.com/justins-ring-of...or-recap-91413/ The Kings of Sport interview Marc Kruskol: http://placetobenation.com/the-kings-of-sp...skol-interview/

Atlantis y El Hijo del Santo vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Lobo Rubio (11/25/83) Add Lobo Rubio to the guys I have never seen before. I love seeing young Santo as he looked really young and spry in the 1990 stuff I have seen so this being seven years before that is a mindbender. Santo does a roll up rana into a headscissors that I haven’t seen before but looks great. He follows that up by climbing up Rubio and taking him down with another headscissors. Rubio retreats to the outside but that is not safe as Santo headscissors him back in. Awesome. Even with the shitty sound, the crowd was going nuts for this exchange as Atlantis and Fuerza try their luck. Atlantis twists up Fuerza till he is on his head literally. Fuerza is momentarily on top with a wicked quick exchange but Atlantis comes right back with an armdrag sending him to the outside. I again appreciate the mixing of pairings as Rubio gets outmatched by Atlantis. Santo and Fuerza then go at it. This long term rivals seem more cautious with each other and do some beautiful chain wrestling. Dropkick to the outside wins the duel for Santo and we restart with the original pairing in the match with the tecnico getting better of everyone so far. Wrap around the world armdrag by Santo to Rubio This is a clinic. Fuerza tries to amp up the aggression vs. Atlantis but gets outclassed again by the quickness of Atlanits. Ditto for Rubio. Santo then does an armdrag to Fuerza which has to be seen to believe. I can’t even describe it was like a back arm armdrag. Tecnicos then lock on their submissions and win the first fall without hardly breaking a sweat. Segunda Caida starts out with Rubio and Fuerza given a run at Atlantis and Santo and failing. Rubio gives a great rudo move of telling him to calm down which pops the crowd huge. Finally Rbuio catches Atlantis with a punch and the rudos take over. Atlantis gets out and Fuerza offers santo a headshake. When Santo declines, he gets a swift slap in the face. Awesome move by the rudos as Atlantis is laid on the top rope and Rubio gives Fuerza an assisted dive on top of him. Rubio comes down with Santo with a double axehandle from the top and the rudos are dominating now. Santo gets posted on the outside. Rubio hurls Santo to the outside in a power press position and Santo sells his legs well. That ends the second fall when the tecnicos can’t answer the bell. The onslaught continues on Atlantis on the outside and back in the ring. Fuerza gives Santo a ton of stiff strikes but now Santo fires back and him and Rubio have a heated exchange. Fuerza comes in with some stiff right hands and kicks to Santo. Atlantis comes back in for revenge. Fuerza fouls Santo but the ref doesn’t see it. He eats a tilt a whirl suplex from Atlantis twice. The heels then have some miscommunication and the tecnicos double up resulting in them hitting their huge dives on their foes on the outside. The rudos are counted out and Santo/Atlantis are victorious. This tag is an excellent template to the tecnico and rudo style as the tecnico’s showed great flash and grace in winning and the rudos just clobbered them when they were on top. Finish was completely satisfactory. Great intro to lucha choice. (****)

Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza (10/28/83) Refreshing to see Chicana in a traditional title match right after the blood feud with MS-1. This is a match where he clearly feels like the superior worker to Mendoza and leads him to a good match. I can also see this match having some huge proponents because the targets of Chicana's neck and Mendoza's back play into the strategy of multiple falls. Chicana emphasizes the back in everything he does in the third fall. The finish is a letdown and I actually could have had 5-6 more minutes of this but overall it was very good and showed great versatility for Chicana. (***3/4)

Great disc of action. 06-09 TITO SANTANA vs MOOSE MONROE CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Moose was so shitty and the highlight as Johnny put it was Bruno shitting on him on commentary. Tito looked good. * 06-23 TED DIBIASE vs PAT PATTERSON NORTH AMERICAN TITLE CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING Great studio style match with Pat squeaking out a contested victory much to the dismay of the audience. Ted showed some fire in his work and this got me anticipating the rematch very much. ***1/2 07-79 JAY STRONGBOW PROMO WWF TV Pretty damn stoic 07-21 JAY STRONGBOW vs GREG VALENTINE PHILADELPHIA SPECTRUM This match even with my expectations raised from the podcast blew me away. Super heated brawl with Valentine being amazing with the juice job and selling and walking into Strongbow. They had such hatred and intensity in this match and it ended at the right time. Chaotic atmosphere with stuff around ringside being used as weapons. Countout ending was smart and this set up the Indian strap match. ****1/4 07-21 BOB BACKLUND/IVAN PUTSKI vs VALIANTS TAG TITLE PHILADELPHIA SPECTRUM This match blew me away too. The Valiants again pushed the pace when on top and were cheating bastards. Backlund showed some fire and was a good partner. I didn't think he looked wimpy at all going to the back and coming back all stitched up to a huge pop. Putski looked way better here than in his previous appearance. Johnny V also should keep the beard because him as a bastard saying Going fly Now over the mic was a great heel move. Great fun match all around. ***1/2 07-21 PAT PATTERSON vs TED DIBIASE NORTH AMERICAN TITLE PHILADELPHIA SPECTRUM Perfect 11 minute style match. Ted worked over the leg really well and Pat sold for him like a champ. Here is a match that I don't mind the babyface having 90% of the match because it played into the narrative that Ted had him, he just got a little overzealous on the big splashes and Patterson being the wily veteran immediately capitalizes for the victory. This was a great Spectrum show overall. ***3/4 07-26 ANDRE THE GIANT/TED DIBIASE vs JERRY VALIANT/BARON SCICLUNA ATLANTIC CITY I am in team Parv/James on this one. Great tag match that I thought was going to be all schtick when it first started and it settled into a great southern tag structure. The hot tag to Andre was excruciating. I can see how it would be long for some but I never wavered on it since Andre kept trying to interject himself and Valiant was mixing in enough awesome stuff. Ted was a really good face in peril to taking a beating. The hot tag to Andre was as good as I expected it to be. **** MVP of Disc: Ted Dibiase (3 solid matches although Valentine would be my 2nd choice getting a MOTYC out of Strongbow) LVP of Disc: Moose (need I say more?)

Espectro Jr., Satanico y MS-1 vs. Mocho Cota, Sangre Chicana y La Fiera (9/30/83) Have to hand it to MS-1, he is relentless if nothing else. This time him and his lackeys attack all three members at the onset and lay down another impressive beatdown. I know Mocho Cota is someone to be on the lookout for based on the pre set podcast, and he was impressive here and incredibly lanky. He hits a gusher and the rudos clearly take the first fall. The build to the tecnicos comeback is awesome and the pop on the first punch is amazing. The work with them rushing the ring and taking over was really neat and I do love how they will fight fire with fire and throw back nasty punches and do 3 on 1 beatdowns. Satanico of course was a awesome as a prick person on top hitting kicks and also as a person begging off. Match was probably too short overall to be a true classic but as a standalone on a set like this, it was a lot of fun and certainly deserves a spot. (***1/2)

Highlights from this show. - The Horrible full house joke - Kelly's awesome Denucci bio - Pete overall bringing the jokes on this episode (The Pollak joke was awesome) - Johnny's Albano impersonation is spot on - I had an uncle that could open a beer with his eyebrows (I cant tell you how many body parts raced through my mind while Parv said this sentence, but eyebrow wasn't one of them) I know Scott and Justin met Vlad at Wrestlecon while i was at Shimmer and they said he was awesome. I think another memorable fan that seems like a lot of fun is the pink/neon green wearing couple that were supposedly higher ups at some charity or something. Couple long form points: 1. I agree with Pete's assessment on the parity of a match. As long as the overall story being told seems conceivable, I don't need a match to be a your turn, my turn affair but I also have some troubles with the WWF structure when it becomes 80% dominated by a babyface. I understand that WWF traditionally more than any other promotion can be babyface oriented but it can seem a little one sided. 2. I was glad that Johnny explained that Volkolff was leaving the territory and thats why Bruno buried him. I disagree with the notion that if the crowd pops, it worked as a reasonable discussion in this type of forum. No one is listening to these shows to get a sense of what the crowd really popped for or not, they are wanting to hear the opinions on the matches and information on the cards that will be revisionist in nature. I have no problem putting crowd heat as a metric you use when evaluating a match(even though its minimal for me).

Yeah like I said, I shouldnt been surprised but Dave has rated Cena matches fairly high over the years so I thought he valued him more.

On the latest Observer Sim Limte show, Dave outright scoffs at the notion that Cena is the best big match wrestler in WWE history. He throws up Michaels, Edge, and Angle as examples of better big match wrestlers. I shouldn't have been surprised but the way that he outright denied the thought that Cena was one of the best in history did surprise me.

This does feel like the ending era where you can say conclusively that All Japan is not the top dog from a main event storytelling standpoint and the workrate is not quite there either. Everything seems to have peaked with 1/20/97. I am very interested to see how the rest of the year plays out but hope I'm not too saddened. This was a great match but may almost be one of the most hollow matches I will ever give **** to and I almost feel bad that it will almost assuredly be on my top 100 over something like Nick Patrick vs. Randy Anderson. Shame to that Kawada's big night feels lackluster.

Kobashi vs. Misawa is echoed by what most have said here. I still would call it a very good match but its natural to be underwhelmed when they had what I might consider the best match of all time 3 months before. Misawa was being targeted more and looked really vulnerable throughout. Kawada's music firing up was a great moment with the camera on a wounded Misawa. This match was extremely logical but yet underwhelming. I appreciate what they were going for, but it just didn't work out.

Clipping was odd but action within this match was super with great build and timing to the big spots and brutality. We bid adieu to Kudo in a sad moment. Ozaki's stock is really rising in my eyes as she has been great in the 1997 stuff so far.

MS-1 vs. Chicana from 1983 sounds like a good potential place if you rewatch Matt is consistent with your first viewing.

I don't really want to rehash this argument but I just don't see how that is true if you follow Flair's feuds with certain people. The matches vs. Steamboat, Funk. Luger, Sting, Vader, and Garvin all share similar elements but are worked in different ways with Flair taking different percentage portions of the match and doing more brawling/wrestling with the match calls for it. Within those feuds, many of the matches that comprise of them are also worked in multiple ways. Yes a figure four and Flair flop is comprised within the match but Flair may use the butterfly suplex vs. Steamboat and never bus it out in the match vs. Funk. Listened to the show yesterday and thought it was a good detail rundown of Bret's career and truly did celebrate him as the great wrestling I think most of us here see him as. The Hart promo did freak me the fuck out also.

MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana (9/23/83) Obviously probably the odds on favorite to be #1 for the set and a match I had seen and really liked before. On this watch, this felt like one of the greatest matches of all time. When I watched this a few years ago, I don't think I had the maturity and conflict in my real life to fully resonate to the match. Tons of people will talk about the components of the match but I will comment on the thing that makes this match one of the best. The element of depth. How far was each man williing to reach below to pull out a victory. How far was MS-1 willing to sink in those first two falls to ensure victory. Chicana's sell job is awesome throughout with a glazed look on his face. In the past two years of my life, I have faced greater triumphs and depths. There have been moments where you feel that same glazed over feeling. Everything becomes a blur and yet you soldier on because achieving the task at hand is worth it in the end. Chicana exemplified this. Him raising his arms at the end of this match felt like a religious rebirth. The ending didn't see them hug and congratulate each other. As satisfied as Chciana was at the victory, his hatred for MS-1 didn't subside. This match is a masterpiece. (*****)

Kevin von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000 y Halcon Ortiz v. Coloso Colosetti, Pirata Morgan y Herodes (9/23/83) There is something bizarre about the first trios on the set involving Kevin Von Erich. He starts us off with a mat based section against Herodes which I never would have guessed would be the case but it was interesting nonetheless. Kevin may have missed his calling as a heel because he shoves Herodes down and has the most prick look on his face. He fires off a dropkick and Herodes retreats. Mascara and Colosetti have the next exchange and it is fine if not particularly inspiring stuff. This gives way to Pirata vs. Halcon. Pirata is the person I am most looking forward to on this set. With Dandy, Satanico, and Santo, I feel like I have seen a ton of their greatest stuff in the 90’s so I know what they can do. I have seen some great Pirata stuff but I feel there is more untapped potential in my viewing than in the other three individuals. Their first exchange ends in a funny moment as the ref gets taken out by Pirata. Halcon ends up on top for most of the exchanges. We get a switch up in the parings as Kevin and Colosetti are next. Kevins high standing elbow had great air on it. Kevin also drags his face against the mat while in a head scissors. What a dick. Herodes and Ano have a fast as shit exchange followed up by Pirata and Ortiz continuing doing their thing. Pirata looks a little better this time but gets monkey flipped to the outside and takes a sick bump. I’m loving the snippets of the different pairings we get throughout this match. The two bruisers Halcon and Herodes go at it. Kevin fires off dropkicks and another high elbow to pin Herodes and Halcon gets the victory roll on Pirata to end the first fall. Rudos start off dominating the second fall playing the numbers game and clobbering their counterparts. However, Kevin is able to fire off and now that team is dominating. Pirata finally gets one up in a exchange with Ortiz. He pins him on a front flip senton. Tempers are really flaring up with Devin and Colosetti. They continue wailing away on each other on the outside between falls and Kevin gets posted. Halcon looks out of gas on the third fall basically relying on Pirata to bump for him into the ringpost and to the outside. He does do a nice dive onto Pirata though. Kevin is able to get the top rope crossbody on Colosetti to win the match. Pretty anticlimactic final fall even with the spot the match had been building to with Kevin vs. Colosetti. Kevin steps over him in another dick spot from him in this match. Good intro to trios matches and I really liked the constant mixing of the pairings. I don’t think Kevin of course understands the dynamic of tecnico vs. rudo tendencies in lucha but they covered for him well. (***1/4)

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek (6/12/83) Another match that starts with a firm mat base. Canek went for a bow and arrow which was a neat variation and different from the last match but Fujinami wasn’t game so he turned it into a pin attempt. Canek then does this odd hold where he has the legs grapevine and his hands are interlocked under Fujinami’s righ armpit. Fuji pushes the pace with some dropkicks. Canek does two really cool diving elbows including one to the back of the head of a standing Fujinami which is a variation I have never seen before to win the first fall. So far Canek has been a lot more lively to me in this match than the previous one. Second fall starts off with Canek hot as he hits the flying elbow. He does a weird sell job out of this though that I didn’t quite get and Fuji takes over with an enzuguri and floatover suplex. Backdrop suplex evens it up and this second fall felt a lot like the brief second falls we see in CMLL today. Fuji starts the third fall by attacking Caneks leg and peppering it away. Canek hooks in an abdominal stretch. One thing I have liked about this match as a soon as a match starts to feel a little boring, Fuji will escape and pick up the pace. The tone of the third fall is more vicious to even within the confines of wrestling holds like their arm drags. Butterfly suplex and fisherman suplex are both busted out by Canek. Fuji now locks in his own bow and arrow and ab stretch as payback spots. Canek comes back with a figure four and they do the roll to the outside with the hold still applied spot which seemed very revolutionary in 1983. Canek suplexes him back in and Fuji selling of the leg is majestic. Fuji accidently dropkicks the ref and Cnaek sends him to the outside. Awesome looking tope from Canek responds that feels built up to. Finish is pretty blah with the ref just declaring Canek the winner but we do get a fairly heated brawl and exchange on the outside to what I can only guess would continue this feud. I liked this better than the previous match based on the fact that I thought Canek was a lot better in this match. (***3/4)

El Canek vs. Don Corleone (2/14/82) I don't think I have ever seen Canek before. I forgot to mention it in the last match but I love this arena and the look of this show. This one starts mat oriented like the last match but was more explosive and active than the previous match. Canek would get submission moves but not do a ton with them. Corleone was having to push the action in the first fall and came off with some good transitions. His flipover leg grapevine maneuver especially impressed which he then transitioned into a STF type hold. Lou alls for a rope break and we get a little shoving contest. Canek takes advantage with a dropkick and gutwrench suplex. A couple of flash elbows and we have the finish to our first fall. Canek starts the second fall where we left on in the first working over the arm. Canek delivers a weird piledriver where he executes it like a tombstone. Thesz pulls Canek off of a submission he had on Corleone when he reaches the ropes. This fall has been way too one sided. Beautiful bump by Corleone on a back drop. Corleone fires back with a flurry and hits tonight favorite move, a double underhook suplex to even it up. Third fall is a little back and forth before a deep surfboard by Corleone. Corleone giving that up and going back to that STF type submission was super. Canek makes his comeback here and powerslams and dropkicks to the outside. Big dive for Canek. Thesz is out of position for a nearfall. Atomic drop gets a nearfall to the chagrin of Bob Backlund. Canek then hits a german and wins the matchup. I liked the previous match better as the work seemed more focused and it built up better to the third fall climax. Corleone impressed though. (***)

Centurion Negro vs. Gran Hamada (2/14/82) I really enjoyed seeing Lou Thesz ref this match and both guys upping their matwork game to impress them. That was something Phil talked about in the podcast previewing the set and I agree. How much Centurion Negro is out there? He looked really good here I thought being dominant but interesting and feeding into Hamadas underdog tendencies. Only saw a 6 man of him opposite black Terry on youtube. The opening fall with the leg work he was doing I thought was really good and interesting variations on some stuff. Everything looked very firmly applied and not relinquished. The double underhook suplex being utilized by him as neutralizer was also one of my favorite themes of the match. The third fall ratchets everything up with dives to the outside and multiple pin attempts and positioning but this would have seemed pretty hollow to me if they hadn't laid the grown work on front end of the match. Overall very enjoyable and I dig Hamada as the best underdog in the footage we have seen. (***3/4)

My favorite running gag with these shows is seeing the accompanying visual images posted after Parv's message and trying to figure out what their relevance is.

Andre the Giant y Cien Caras vs. Alfonso Dantes, Herodes y Sangre Chicana (1981) Prematch promo from Andre is amusing with him saying he is 7 feet 2 inches tall. Ok then Hulkster. Opening is a wild scene with Chicana defiantly standing in front of Andre chewing gum. Andre charges ahead and Sangre wisely takes a powder. Some big shit also was happening in the crowd with someone being carted away by the police. We start off with both Dantes and Sangre grabbing a leg resulting in Andre spanking Sangre. Dantes tries his luck again and gets sit on. Herodes grabs and hammerlock and Andre dead lifts him up. He then does it to both Chicana and Herodes ot the delight of the crowd. Where t the fuck is Caras with all of this happening? Andre is doing some amazing power man stuff and the crowd is eating it all up. He pulls Chicana one foot up from out of the corner onto his feet. Finally, Cien enters the match. Cien gets worked over a bit but its more Andre to the rescue. He steps on Chicana. Andre in another funny moment places caras in front of him to kick any oncoming intruders. I am really alarmed at how incompetent they are making Caras look with Andre having to bail him out at all times. Fall ends with Andre/Caras as the victors. Finally the rudos get a little advantage on Andre only for Caras to trip them up. Caras gets fouled behind the refs back and Andre lines all three in the corner for a battering ram spot. He sits down on Herodes and bearhugs Chicana for the victory. Match is perplexing because I have a couple of major problems with it. One, it follows the same pattern and is not that short. Andre dominates against three guys, Caras gets outgunned and worked over, and Andre makes the save. Second, I will need more clarification on how big name the rudos and Caras where at this time. I know comedy can be a part of major wrestlers in lucha but it didn’t work for me in how stupid the rudos were made to look. I can see some people really digging this as a vacuum type match with Andre showing his dominance and I did laugh at many spots, but the overall match lacked a certain depth and was too long for what it was trying to accomplish. (**)

Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80) May regret this but I'm going to try to use Parv's grading system on this set. These four guys are a good mixture of well known individuals (Hamada, TM), people we have seen in other 80's set (Babyface), and a lucha guy that is well known (Perro). Perro sets the tone for the match right away bum rushing Hamada and sending them to the outside. Good vicious brawling in the opening onset. Perro casually walking to the outside and facing Hamada was great and Perro overall is my MVP of this match. Another cool moments happens when Hamada tags in, wants to go after Perro, and he casually walks and steps out of the ring. Hamada responds by spitting at him and the heat is on. Hamada has a great combination here where he fends off both Babyface and Perro. Sayama looked crisper on his stuff here than what I have seen of early 80's TM. Babyface was the worlds most loyal henchman always letting Perro wail away but standing there by his side and lending a hand. First fall finish with Sayama/Perro seemed a little botched but they covered it up nicely. Second fall Perro/Baby are able to get their revenge and even things up. Third fall has the premise that the rudos have dominated this whole match. Hamada really comes into play here firing back with just enough stuff to give the viewer a sense of hope before Perro slings him to the outside. Hamada's bleeding now but not giving up. His posting of Perro after slinging him out the ring ignites the crowd and myself as a great revenge spot. You can see both Perro/Babyface losing a sense of control they have had for most of this match and Perro saying fuck it and fouling on Hamada on the surface may seem cheap, in the confines of the match it made perfect sense. I have no idea where this will rank overall of course but if this is a middle of the road match in the set, we are in for a wild ride. (****)

Under the radar very good match that features some intricate selling and brutality by both teams. This match seemed like a good one int he Hansen is GOAT camp because he was fabulous here slinging Misawa into the table and fending off Kawada. Misawa/Kawada have really gelled as a team together.

Good to see Yatsu looking so spry. Him and Tenryu had some real heated exchanges. Yatsu swinging that chair with reckless abdonan was excellent until Tenryu said enough of this shit and beat him down. Fuyuki and Nakano were mainly there to fill up space. Good match overall.