ohtani's jacket

This was more of a straight forward trios match than the brawls we've seen from the rudos in recent weeks. We get a glimpse of Perro vs. Ultimo, but they don't have instant chemistry. Some decent action in the tercera.

I still think there isn't enough footage available to make any definitive conclusions about the influence that Wright had on German wrestling. If he had an immediate impact, you'd expect to see it in the CWA footage. It seems like a stretch to give him too much credit for whatever happened post-CWA. That said, I can't remember whether non-heavyweights were involved in the German tournaments prior to 1980.

Regarding the match itself, it's a good bout but they could have done more with the third fall. For a battle of the idols, it would have been nice if they'd raised the stakes a bit.

Maybe Bob hates swimming pool matches as well.

None of these matches contradict what I said about Wright. I'm not sure whether you can claim that Wright "revolutionized" German wrestling without more footage from the 60s and 70s. The work in that Zrno match is nice, but it's Zrno. One of the greats. Can't expect that from a Koshinaka bout.

It's self-evident.

Swimming pool matches are the worst. There is no defense for them. Case closed.

The problem is that Steve Wright never wrestled the way you describe. I can't think of any examples of Wright having a classic wrestling match in the CWA. At some point, his style evolved from the Wonder Kid style you see in World of Sport to the Bull Blitzer style that he used when he faced Marty in '86. Whether he's working heel or face, it's the Bull Blitzer stuff that you mostly see in these CWA matches with the occasional nod to his Wonder Kid past. Personally, I prefer his Bull Blitzer style work to the Wonder Kid stuff just like I prefer Terry Rudge to a stylist like Johnny Saint, but that's not really a preference for brawling over technical wrestling. I simply think Wright is better suited to being an asskicker than a stylist at that phase of his career. In the CWA, they had to work with whatever opponent they were booked against. I'm sure you'll agree that it was fairly random. Shiro Koshinka wasn't going to be doing European holds. Japanese matwork is fundamentally different from European matwork and II doubt they would have meshed well. They could have tried, but I doubt the results would have been noteworthy. Working heel is an easier option. A cheap option, perhaps, but you've seen the heat that Bull Power got. That heat is the end goal for most professional wrestlers. You can lament that it's not a technical wrestling match, or you can accept it for what it is and look for positives. Personally, I don't think you're going to find too many strong technical bouts from CWA -- certainly not that often and definitely not in full. The strength of the Koshinaka bout was a strong narrative and a great character performance from Wright, two things that were evident in the best World of Sport matches and are universal things not American things. It's the type of match that would have run in the Halls in England and would have garnered a positive reaction. TV being so sanitized often creates a false impression of what wrestling was really like in the Halls. I would take a great technical match over a brawl any day. I am not a particularly big fan of brawling. I would rather watch a lucha title match over an apuestas match, for example, but I like a good brawl when I see one. Backlund vs. Khan has potential on paper, but I believe it wasn't that well executed. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Again, not a match where you'd want to see them mat wrestle. Brawling was a huge part of Backlund's shtick, and he was pretty adept at it.

A lot of dead weight in this match, but it was worth watching for the Altantis vs. Wagner exchanges. Talk about your great rivalries with no payoff. If I could rewrite lucha history, I'd book a Wagner vs. Atlantis mask match with Atlantis taking the Doctor's mask. It probably wouldn't rival Atlantis vs. Villano -- a match, which in my opinion, signals the end of classic lucha -- but I like their trios work far more than the Atlantis/Villano matches.

Fun match, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect a bit more from a match involving Santo, Casas. Halloween and Damian. The rudo side was a bit of a let down but the tecnico action great. El Hijo del Santo makes everything better. Exciting finish too.

This was pretty wild by CMLL standards, which isn't saying much but I can understand why these matches were popular with fans who weren't in the Mistico camp. There's a lot of posing and the occasional flare up, and it ends in controversial fashion with your standard promo afterwards. That leads to a beat down and the wrestlers being escorted away by CMLL security. It's a fun spectacle in spite of everyone doing their best to avoid working a match. I've always had a soft spot for Perro vs. Universo. I just like Universo in general. Pierroth vs. Halloween and Damian was fun as well even if Pierroth can barely walk at this point.

I enjoyed the episode a lot. At the beginning it sounded as though you were reading from your blog post a bit too directly, but you became more relaxed later on in the podcast. Definitely inspired me to watch the match again.

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Steve Wright (8/20/90) I thought this was an excellent match. I am a long time hater of Shiro Koshinaka, but this match and his excellent apuestas bout with Satanico have convinced me that he was one of the better touring Japanese workers of his era. He basically worked as a heel here, but it created a platform for Wright to work a hugely compelling performance from underneath. You won't find many better Wright performances than this. You can find matches with great brawling or exhibition style Euro work, but very few matches with a compelling narrative. There isn't a ton of matwork, but what matwork there is comes across as a do or die struggle. I wouldn't have expected a match with Koshinaka in it to be one of the better German catch bouts from the early 90s, but it makes sense given the makeup of competitors in these tent shows.

Always fun to see these guys. Yeah, you wish they'd get more time to let the match breathe, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to these guys making TV.

This was slower than your typical CMLL television match. Unfortunately, that didn't make it any better than average. It was mostly built around Tarzan Boy vs. Lizmark Jr, which was only mildly interesting. Casas wore pants, which was off-putting. I hope the door is shut on the narrative about him being one of the best in the world for each year of his prime. It's not his fault that CMLL isn't doing anything with him, but he's not exactly stealing the show in matches like these. This was a crowd pleaser in the sense that they did a few house show style spots, and the tecnicos won, but there's nothing to really sink your teeth into here.

Talk about New Zealand's gift to wrestling history.

Fit Finlay vs. Otto Wanz (8/10/90) After watching Vader slug it out with Otto, I was interested to see what approach Finlay would take. It was more of a standard heel performance from Finlay. He bumped and sold for Otto in the beginning before chipping away at his legs and working him on the ground for a while. Nothing great. The finish was some BS with the heel ref whose name escapes me. Man, Finlay vs. Bull Power would have been interesting, especially if Vader threw a stray punch or two.

This was better than I thought it would be. I thought a rudo Atlantis might be exposed a bit in a singles match, but he did a good job of modifying his offense. He won't gonna give the top rudos a run for their money, but he's not embarrassing himself either. Mistico was having an off night. There was a large contingent of rudo fans booing him. I don't know if that affected him or not. Some of the blown spots were bad. There was moonsault spot where he was meant to land behind Atlantis, but he flew sideways and bounced chest first off the ropes. Despite the fact that Mistico was rattled, I still enjoyed the match. The finish was shit as Mistico pulled Atlantis' mask off for a cheap victory (I hate it when tecnicos resort to those sort of tactics). The Mistico fans were pumped up about it and drowned out the boos. It felt like a bit of an overreaction on their part but added to the spectacle. Dave gave this 4 stars, which is bizarre. I guess the crowd heat swayed him.

Matt didn't review the match so perhaps the INA mislabeled it.

It’s the same info that Bob shared but in a slightly different format.

I did a search for it and found it in the INA archives.

Bull Power vs. Otto Wanz (8/21/87) I love Bull Power vs. Otto Wanz matches. They're such amazing slugfests. In fact, it may be my favorite Vader match up of all time. Sometimes I wonder how he got away with slugging the boss so hard. This is a great fight. Wanz delivers a hell of a haymaker at the end, and they work a proper KO finish. This made me want to revisit the other Bull Power/Otto Wanz fights.

This was a fun match. It was probably asking a bit much for it to laden with psychology. It was reasonably well laid out and the execution was decent. Kobashi and Joe seemed a bit tired from the night before, Homicide was hurt and Low Ki had just arrived in the country a few hours earlier, but you couldn't fault the effort. Not as special as the night before, but that match was lightning in a bottle.

OK, so the Atlantis heel turn is officially the best thing happening in CMLL. If you watch a lot of CMLL, you'll know that most of the time you're sitting around waiting for something to happen. I won't pretend that Atlantis is a great rudo, but it's fun watching him try. This wasn't as good as their match from the week before, largely because it was built around next week's Mistico vs. Atlantis match, and was strangely edited to boot, but the time flew by.

It could be, but that's not how they work the final round. They're clearing searching for a pinfall. I don't think there was a lot of counter wrestling either, for that matter. They did some armwork, but aside from a few things that Taylor may have done, there wasn't a lot of undressing of holds. Owen was doing his favored kip up spots. There was a lot of buggering around with the ref. It was typical houses show stuff. I like the match overall, though.