Matt D

Re: Sami/Bryan One way to make these matches work is by hitting really hard (and they did here too), but the most important way, I think is to have the wrestlers really, really, really care about what's happening. If they're that invested, then it won't matter if there's a crowd or not. Sure the crowd would help and they'd give a bunch more heat for Sami playing chickenshit, but at the end of the day, it was Bryan that was reacting. And he was reacting so well that he didn't need them. Sami was drawing heat FROM Bryan and it drove the match. If there needed to be a more elaborate finishing stretch like @Jmare007 said, it should have been more smoke and mirrors with Bryan taking out the guys on the outside and maybe Sami getting a cheapshot in on Gulak, etc. I liked that it was just a one hit KO on Bryan. It felt more cheap that way. They never would have booked this Mania if everything had gone right if they had, it probably would have been one of the best in years.

Skipped Corbin and am caught up. I think Becky came off better too. I haven't seen any of her stuff for the last year or so, really, but I know she had a hard time holding the crowd before that. Ironically, I think this one might have. They really took it to each other and the acoustics helped every shot seem nasty, mostly hard hitting with attempts to lock on the finishes but with that little underlying story of Becky slipping into her old ways in the face of Shayna's tenacity was good but Shayna almost pushed her past it with the shots on the floor. She still snuck it out on a banana peel, like Bret did with Austin when he was coming up at Survivor Series. This worked well but it was hard to live up to the first minute or two and felt more like a first match than anything else.

Playing catch up: Women's tag was fun. I don't think I've seen much of either team. Kairi and Bliss matched up from a size and perkiness perspective. The shine had lots of fireworks (and dives) with the heels really working for the transition. There were about three hot tags, all of which were hurt due to the lack of a crowd and not quite enough anticipation. The match probably would have been served better with one longer one with Bliss since she did well with her hope spots (though having Asuka to cut her off helped). Using both the twisted bliss and the big elbow drop as ways to break up pins was cute and effective. Finish felt really flat without a crowd. I'm not sure what else you can say but that.

I really enjoyed the opening video. I just wanted big dumb pirate stuff and I got way more than I expected there. It's also funny that Vince finally understands Paul Burchill's gimmick.

You know the deal on this end. Bits and pieces around parenting and other things. I caught all of Cesaro vs Gulak which was one of my top matches for this whole thing coming in. Interesting narrative with Cesaro going for the Neutralizer early and paying for it as Gulak started on the arm. Consistently great selling from Cesaro even when he didn't need to sell necessarily. It made things like Gulak hitting the clothesline off the apron more believable: Cesaro wasn't just standing around waiting for it. He was struggling to get feeling back in his arm. The heel/face dynamic was a little inverted. Cesaro was the one getting hope spots, like when he almost caught Gulak on the outside before getting armdragged or with the european uppercut that he couldn't follow up on because he used his bad arm. I'm assuming they were playing this up with Gulak as the underdog which made both Cesaro going for the neutralizer too early and the overall narrative (with Gulak being so focused because if Cesaro took over, even once he'd be in real trouble) make sense. Finish worked well as he had to come up with a no hands solution, and he had a familiar (if ancient) one in his deck. I could have used a couple of extra minutes, maybe Cesaro actually getting control for a bit longer either early or late but for the time they had, this was very good.

Oh good. They'll have footage when they bring hidden gems back in ten years.

Right now I’d only watch 50s French Catch

Now I feel bad for sullying the good name of Maujean.

This place means a lot to me. Thanks for the kind words. If I'm any sort of a mind on wrestling, it's because of the same thing that wrestlers say they need to get better, being in discussions (as opposed to the ring) with people who are great minds, and PWO has already has always had more than its fair share. I can't tell you how daunted I was by everyone when I started lurking twelve or thirteen years ago. Obviously that didn't last. If I graduated from the University of DVDVR, I got my masters degree here at PWO. Along the way, I've made great friendships here, and appreciate the place deeply. Currently, even though things are quieter, it's still such an important place for uncovering new footage and discussing it. I'm not just talking the french catch trove either (though uncovering that would have been so much more difficult without PWO), but the Japanese handhelds, and TV, and discussion of Houston and the WWE Hidden Gems before that. We've moved out of an era of hoarding and into one where research, resources, and ingenuity can be shared. You need the sort of community only a place like PWO can foster.

And a loss for all of us since the well went dry.

This, like everything you've been posting, is great. BUT I am not spelling Frisuk's name as Fryziuk. We have to draw the line somewhere!

First one we get is actually vs Hunter/Hayes. Then LeDuc/Gastel, de Zarzecki/Mr.Montreal, de Zarzecki/Carpentier (I think), de Zarzecki/Mr.Montreal (again), de Zarzecki/Guguliemetti. Lots of interesting looking Delaporte singles matches though.

We've got Bob Anthony vs Rene Ben Chemoul from 61 coming this week and that's wrestled pretty clean/pure wrestling too.

Who is he not above then?

Agreed that the reviews are great. For now, most of these that are reviewed here are being posted at Segunda Caida every Tuesday, so you could watch them this second. As for the rest, I imagine there’ll be news soon and then OJ will either follow along... or outpace us and I can crib from his notes. Links to the last three here. Watch and share freely: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2020/03/tuesday-is-french-catch-day-luis-el.html?m=1

In my review, I likened it to the familiarity of a title match structure, but that's because it felt like a late 70s Harley Race NWA title match (or maybe even Flair from five or six years later; they're similar and there are different traces of both), not necessarily a UK/European title match. I think that Royal's leeway to bend the rules came primarily out of the ref's frustration over how blatant Oliver was being about it.

Hopefully by then someone will have cracked the 80s Mexico TV vault and we have new footage and then Uncovered 80s Satanico will be best.

I did a whole bunch of write-ups a few years ago, midway down this page: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search/label/Hector Garza Blogspot is not great so the earlier ones might be hard to find, but really, just go to the lucha match finder: http://www.luchadb.com/roster/matchfinder.php and find some Garza matches from 2010-2011 with him as a rudo (red) and a video online.

I mean, this is his family. Hector Garza is up there with Mocho Cota and Negro Casas as the most charismatic rudos of all time. Watch any throw away 2010 Garza rudo performance and there's like twenty things to take note of.

In this case, they'd be well suited to do a sit down interview with Drew talking about his journey/love of wrestling, maybe an on-location thing with Christian talking about the attack on Edge, and show a couple of old Elimination Chambers (like the one Edge snuck into and won).

Some of it just comes down to batting average. Orton gets a ton of at bats. Fifteen years' worth of weekly chances. He's had a few home runs. Whenever he gets annoyed and complains about being at a city when he'd rather be home or does a random jumping jack as a babyface, that's a solid double. He's still batting .0175 at best.

Bayley vs face Sasha would, I think.

I imagine he's probably pretty happy for Drew. He's still going to get the slot vs the Fiend at Mania, likely.

It's amazing when they more or less do something right.

Everyone killing Rollins will be cathartic after last year's debacle.