Matt D

In that case,

Ok, it's not just the music. Look, I'm watching the Oct 31, 1981 episode. Landell just beat Fulton by reversing a corner whip, hitting a back body drop, and landing a gutwrench suplex, right? The replay? It shows the two corner moves that Fulton hit as his last bits of offense (a shoulder thrust and a knee in the corner) and the very start of the whip reversal before they cut to commercial even before the back body drop. They would have been far better off with no replay at all.

Thanks, Matt. I've seen more than my share of 1985 JCP, but while I remember the Taylor TV match and the Houston TV match and the Sawyer TV match from Tully, I don't remember this one at all, so I'm looking forward to digging in. I took a quick look and saw that you had worked through at least some of the DVDVR Mid-South set back in the day. If I was going to add one and only one supplemental match from the Houston footage we picked up in the last few years, it might well be Murdoch vs Dibiase from December 29, 1985. It's a Grudge Match after the big Dibiase turn episode in November and we only ever had a clipped version before.

It's amazing how much better the Roncerverte WV local promos make the show. Hayes is awesome.

Week 3. I tried to pick up people who wanted to join since last time. The deal is the same. I did a quick check to make sure we didn't have pairings from Weeks 1 or 2 but that's not going to last forever. Even if you're behind, still try to select a match for your opponent. If you need to sit out a week at some point, let me know. We have 26 people now, which is nuts, so if I missed you, let me know. I think people have been enjoying things so far, so thanks for participating. WEEK 3 southofheavy PeteF3 dkookypunk43 Jmare007 Beast Wahoo's Leg Matt Franklin Matt D Richeyedwards concrete1992 Laz AstroBoy topropepodcast Grimmas Rah Nintendo Logic SPS SirEdgar Jetlag WingedEagle C.S. soup23 dawho5 CapitalTTruth Tim Evans Migs I'll try to have a match for my fellow Matt later on today.

It feels like we're a little lacking on results to fill in the gaps too.

I thought, at the time, what needed the most delving from Dylan, was the idea that All Japan (and I suppose certain New Japan) was actually of the "western" tradition with US/Canadian Pro Wrestling, which is a much shorter way of saying what is above. EDIT: And the corollary of that is that other traditions are often looked at through that "western" lens by those of authority (I'd add a sort of Meltzerian "workrate" but you could mention how Austin/Bret/etc. doesn't understand lucha, etc.), and thus cultural elements are is partially to hugely missed. But some of that is me.

What I see happening is that they stay within their means, make it into a big cultural event/pilgrimage, do an impressive number, fall short, make a big profit and then push it for the following year as something to top. It builds in reputation and within a few years, they get there.

Can we pause for a moment and note that in the ads for the WWE anniversary show, they are advertising Brother Love as if he was equal to basically everyone but Sgt Slaughter. There might even be something to that. What a weird world we've ended up in.

Hair match with Metallico second on the card on a Tuesday show.

That's where I'm stuck because i can't just half watch it like I've been doing.

It has a lot going for it but It feels much more botchy, production wise. Some of that may be WWE's music dubs, maybe. Maybe?

I'm totally befuddled how Jacques Goulet beat Dusty in the first round of the 81 US Title Tournament. It was absolutely hilarious when Crockett was interviewing McGee about Idol's figure four and ran out of time while McGee was trying to explain what part of the leg it affected on him because he was so short. The production value, in general, feels laughable, even relative to other territories in 81. I heard a story lately that Jake got named "The snake" by Valiant on his way in and I don't think this footage bears that out, but we're missing stuff and I don't know how long Valiant was off TV during the transition between Handsome and Boogie-Woogie. At the first bit of footage, he's got the hat with the snake on it, and he's called that by Youngblood in October when they're showing the hype video for "man from new york city" valiant, which obviously lost the song.

It feels crazy to speculate on something like Bryan right now, but the CMLL Anniversary show is generally in september too and that is a current dream of his as best as I know. Who knows.

The team of Jones and Monte is visually weird, with similar hair/mustaches. You almost think they could have packaged that, but I have no idea how. If it was 1988 WWF they could have been a heel Highway Patrol type team.

That's a great way for Rey to get resigned in May or whenever.

That’s definitely the Cena we’ll get for a match like this. I'm not convinced. The match might be good because of physical limitations.

Institutional complicity mainly, it seems.

I think this will be a good GWE style test for Cena, actually.

Glad that I found something you hadn't seen (I threw a hail mary there because you've seen a lot of stuff). It really is a hell of a sprint with a great crowd and a ton of traditional, classic babyface fire by Hennig. Very much looking forward to what you've put in front of me because it's far out of my wheelhouse. Will check it out in the next couple of days. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/21752-kenta-vs-suwa-noah-2nd-great-voyage-091805/ Thanks to jmare for this. It's something I wouldn't have come across on my own and I got a real kick out of it. Very interesting layout with a top notch heel performance and what might be an underrated ace babyface one.

I came into this blind. I think I've seen one KENTA match in the 00s (a heel performance with Shibata vs a Taue tag). I'm not convinced I've ever seen SUWA; actually I'm pretty sure I never have. You can count the NOAH matches I've seen, in general, on two hands. I really liked this though. It was a testament to consistency of character and the malleability and possibilities of pro wrestling, as well as the transcendent power of escalation and symbolic meaning. Yeah, it was all that, mainly through a dickish performance by one wrestler and the way another chose to respond. SUWA was great from the start, dipping under the ring to drop off his Money in the Bank case, threatening the ref, ripping up the scroll, making obscene gestures, and then, ultimately, after KENTA gets the best of the initial strike exchange, trying to take a powder. I kind of wish they had stalled just a little more there, but 1) it would have extended an already long and eventful match, 2) the fact that KENTA chased right after him helped to establish his credibility, and 3) it set up, in a wild fashion, the bell shot and the immediate briefcase shot that followed. KENTA got the DQ win, including a graphic on screen, SUWA clapped and laughed his way down the ramp. This needed blood. Two big shots to the head from foreign objects. It needed blood. That's ok though. I didn't get a sense of KENTA demanding they restart the match, but restart it they did, with KENTA recovered enough (maybe more believable because of the lack of blood?) to dash down the ramp and assault SUWA, kick him, suplex him on the ramp, and proceed to toss him back in. The next couple of minutes are a lot of fun, as KENTA doesn't get outright bloody vengeance (again, maybe blood would have prevented this?). Instead, he humiliated SUWA with offense, sliding in and out of the ring to mess with him, draping him over the top rope and kicking and slapping him but at his own leisure, hitting a flashy dropkick. It fit the characters and the match but wasn't at all conventional. Unfortunately, the big transition to SUWA taking back over came from KENTA locking in a chinlock for no reason, basically letting him up, and SUWA hitting a sloppy Regal Cutter. I have no idea why any of that happened. Part of pulling off a match like this is total commitment and that felt like a slip. Thankfully, SUWA more than made up for it when he was in control, starting by undoing his taped fists and choking KENTA with them, then going to the turnbuckle and trying to get it off, which never really does pay off in the match, but does allow him to arguing and threaten (and even try to kick) almost everyone in the arena including Higuchi. SUWA's body language here was just off the charts. When he tried to kick the guys fixing the turnbuckle the place came unglued. It felt so wild and natural and immersive. It's like this. If doing one dickish thing was good, doing three in a row was excellent. KENTA, to me, came off as absolutely credible and dangerous. I don't think people should overlook his performance here. He felt like he could come back at any moment, but still sold heavily and appropriately. When SUWA started on the back, KENTA would build in a bit of sell into his comebacks. SUWA kept going to cheapshots and eyerakes to cut him off (though KENTA doing a full back bump on one eyerake was pretty ridiculous). The best cutoff was SUWA shoving the ref into the ropes to break up a springboard. I had to rewind it twice to figure out what happened. Brilliant stuff, probably dangerous to execute, that you just don't see all that often. It was, to a degree the folly of each man in the match. SUWA wouldn't stay on the back, wanting to create distance to do big jerk attacks (which sometimes worked, like the corner dropkick, and ultimately didn't, which I'll get to in a moment). KENTA's instinct in fighting back was to create distance to hit something aerial when he should have just stuck to the strikes. It's pretty much the only reading that makes the transition into a comeback (so much as there was one) work, as it was pretty much just SUWA running into KENTA's feet in the corner a couple of times. It didn't really transition into a finishing stretch and the match got a little amorphous at that point, so I could have used something a little more definitive maybe. Just a small thing (one of a few that I've mentioned). The escalation was just right for the match in general. When SUWA hits a tope ~18 minutes in (hard to say with the pre-match stuff), the crowd goes big for it because it did feel like a big moment in the match up until then, which is telling considering that they had done a lot of STUFF up until then. It just was appropriate for the period they were doing it. The ultimate finishing stretch was enjoyable, with what I thought was equally appropriate selling even on a strike exchange. That's where the escalation really paid off. The big moment on the back end was SUWA going for repeated low blows and KENTA powering out of a double underhook into the Go 2 Sleep. It wasn't the finish, which also sort of felt right due to the fact SUWA controlled so much of the match up til that point (even if he had just eaten a Tiger Suplex) but it was such a definitive moment where SUWA's cheating ended up not mattering in the face of the sheer force of KENTA's will and moral superiority. At that point, barring some sort of escalation (like another box shot), there was nothing SUWA could do. Fate was against him and he was outmatched and there was ultimately a sense of surprisingly satisfying anti-climax was KENTA finished him off with the running strikes. There were a few things I was iffy on, but ultimately this was a unique match with a couple of great performances in front of a great crowd who was totally into it. I'm glad I watched it.

They spent a month trying to force the yes chants on to big show.

Will get Migs and dkooky in next week.

No one is acting like he is the Shockmaster. You can be bad without also falling through a hole in the wall. Hm. 92 Ottman is decent. That's tough.

There's a bunch of Georgia easily available online. I'd rather have Florida, I think.