Matt D

I kind of like the idea of systemic wrestling feudalism. It probably means less shady promoters than in decades past.

NJPW President said he is running shows in LA, because WWE ran shows in Japan. War is on! Plus, the WWE has some deal with EVOLVE, yet is now saying people can't be on WWE and on FloSlam. Yet... FloSlam is EVOLVE's main streaming service. Shit is going down. None of this seems like a really huge deal to me. This is like McDonald's going after the local burger joint or Walmart tackling a really small chain of pharmacies.

I don't think you can compare current indies to old territories either.

These guys need to figure out how to get whales.

The long and the short of it is that they let him off because he was about to die, right?

Angle should get a nice safe showcase match against Bo Dallas.

I still see them trying hard to get Leno for DDP.

Not to ruin your line, but this was illuminating in that regard. There are a lot of early 80s Houston shows where they have singles matches and then either a mixed tag or a six man and I always wondered if that was something made within the show or just listed out on the card that way as a feature. We've either gotten the singles matches or the tags but rarely both up until now. Here, Boesch said clearly in the singles that they'd also be in the tag later. So that's one mystery solved.

Good, Phil and Eric both reviewed it (and Elliott too). There is no reason in the world for me to ever watch this match.

If we do get any of the "Baron" stuff from 75, I think that's Tony Rocco (Don Corleone from the DVDVR Lucha set). He's someone that I came out of that set wanting to see more of. Obviously the four Santo matches from 74 and 75 are at the height of what we would want for historical value there, but every single one of those Jack Brisco matches look awesome too. Here's hoping.

Yeah, the first four minutes of this was sans comedy for the most part, just good wrestling. Then the comedy kicked in. Lang is someone we've seen before, including on the AWA set, and he's very good at what he does (and even at some things you wouldn't think him to do). You could tell how much fun both Boesch and the crowd were having. Tiny Tom looked like he could have been Hunter's mini from 1995 between the hair and the nose. I thought the tag was really strong, too. Casey is the perfect Southwest mid-card face. He's so good in that role. The stuff with Mansfield and Tom felt like we'd seen it a dozen times before but it's still always enjoyable. A lot of that was due to Lang's timing but also Mansfield's ring awareness. He was so good at running away from Casey and just missing his grasp without it looking staged. The heat on Lang was very, very good, I thought, with Mansfield cutting Lang off from the outside and Lang playing FIP perfectly, constantly fighting back against the odds. Things sort of fell apart and got too lax after the hot tag. In that regard Lang almost was too good a FIP since he wanted me to see Casey get his hands on Mansfield and really pummel him in what was ultimately a comedy match.

I think Dunne coming off as a petulant teenager might be the wrong way to go. He seemed half confused for why he acted as he did backstepping from Regal and half completely indifferent. "Meh." Like the youngest guy in a gang that shoots the old bank guard in the robbery.

"Cowboy Lang is a solid-solid midget type person." Boesch is great. More comments later.

Sometimes when you watch these matches (especially the 70s ones), you see something and wonder why someone isn't doing it every week now. Gino's front facelock, both the lifting and the way he used it to keep control while continuing to sell, is definitely one of those things.

I wanted to comment last night but I waited until Pete because I didn't want to spoil him on anything. I absolutely loved the entire package of Gino/Chavo. Obviously we're a couple of matches into their feud but we know more than enough about both of them to get what's going on. Gino was such a heatseeker and the crowd going after him at the get go was just awesome 1981 wrestling. The guy's buddy with the hat was about as stereotypical as it comes. For the match itself, I'm not even sure I've ever seen a front facelock sequence done like Gino did it, with the lifting. It was a bit sloppy but gritty as hell. Chavo with his suplexes and throws as a means of getting out was way before his time, and Gino just basically continued to fall on him to keep control. Then Chavo's control sequence with all of the tricked out submissions was a total joy, especially hearing Boesch call them. He did as good a job explaining the re-positioning of lucha submissions as I've ever heard an announcer do.Gino's heat in the second fall wasn't long but it was nasty. He was just all over Chavo, brutal stuff. Then, just as Boesch sort of wrote him off, Chavo came back, keeping the momentum into his revenge in the third fall, until they do another little bit of heat, a lucky bit of positioning for Chavo after the elbow drop and a call back of both the Russian Leg Sweep and the tights pull for the win. I think the crowd was actually a little shocked by it. They went nuts but it was slightly delayed. Then came the post match and I wanted Thesz to absolutely kill Gino too. When Chavo finally made it up, though, I thought the crowd was going to mob him in joy. This is the first main event we've gotten in a while and I think it's one of the best total packages we've gotten on the service so far. I can't wait to be able to put it in context with the matches around it. 81-82 Gino, working with the Southwest talent, was something truly special.

I still want Ohno to crash the thing and win to massive amounts of heel heat (though I don't entirely have faith in the crowd to boo him even in that jingoistic situation).

Radiohead has 2x the google hits. Argument solved. Let's move on.

Batista. Jericho. Bryan. DX, NWO. Hart Foundation. Big Show or Kane could almost work. Maybe Sid? Rey? Vince. That would take them a while.

Goldberg still makes the most sense to me in that role unless they think he's actually a viable draw for them for an entire year.

Well I generally agree with a lot of the people I saw pimping the Yehi/Corino match and after watching it I just have no idea what they were watching to call that a MOTYC so I'm less inclined to watch something that is gonna go 30+ minutes if I see red flags like "boring" or "doing nothing" since that was how I felt about large parts of that one. I'd code of honor wrestling bet with you on it too but Kozmic Trooths just posted a Bestia Salvaje/Scorpio Jr. vs Casas/Santo tag tile match from two weeks after their mask/hair match that I've never seen before, so that takes priority tonight.

You and Parv do have the exact same tastes after all.

Parv and I follow the code of honor, apparently. I did not do a write up of the match at the time but there were a few things that stood out to me. I liked the narrative in the first half of the match (and to some extent later on as well that Skyler was capable from a kayfabe perspective. He was arrogant and prone to giving way to frustration or losing himself interacting with the crowd, but he was still presented as capable. He was presented as an actual threat. It was just that Lee was presented on a higher level. The matwork early on felt like a sports game where the score differential was deceptively large and where it was actually closer than it seemed. Honestly, the match that it made me think of was Gino vs Harley from Houston, where the cocky but qualified local heel tried to wrestle up to the visiting champion. I'm with Dylan in that I loved the callbacks, including the STF and penalty kick attempts as well as Skyler paying for trying to spear into the Lee's midsection to set up the finish. I thought the announcers did a great job of getting over Lee working defensively after the mid-section work started. There were a few hope spots where I thought Lee might have had a bit too much pep. They were maybe overly athletic when he should have, given the injury, done something more strike-oriented. I am with everyone else that the arm selling down the stretch by Skyler could have been stronger but also that he made an effort at key moments that I did appreciate. I'll heap on the praise for the pacing most of all though. Chad commented on it at the 20 minute mark, but looking through my messages to him from after he suggested it, I mentioned it at the 14 minute mark. I thought they went for a fairly challenging match for 2016, especially in front of a slightly foreign crowd. While it's probably not a MOTYC, I do think they accomplished what they set out to do and it actively encouraged me to seek out more Lee, which was one thing I more or less said that I wasn't going to do this year.

Yeah, sorry. I shouldn't suggest Matt D matches to other people. It, like Jim Breaks comparisons, is obviously a one way road. I just hadn't a chance to see much else yet (I did see Joey Janella 10 minute match on youtube and I liked that. Lee played a fairly different role there. It felt much more like what you get elsewhere in the indies right now, however. The 26 minute match felt much more unique). So when Parv wanted to do a match trade, it's all I had in my belt on the idea that I wanted him to see some CWF.

So, guess Parv isn't jumping on the CWF bandwagon. I almost feel bad about this one though he's definitely an exception on Lee. You're going to watch the Misawa vs Hase match soon enough anyway so I'll give you one more free. Just pick something that's not modern NJPW with people hitting each other a lot.

I think it's far more likely that they induct the Hart Foundation at some point. That way you can get Pillman, Owen, and Bulldog in without it really being about any of them.