ohtani's jacket

Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Chono (11/4/93) This was good stuff. The first couple of times I watched it I thought it was like reading a Silver Age Justice League comic compared to All Japan's Fantastic Four in that it was polished by lacked the dynamic layout of Kirby's artwork and the depth of Lee's storytelling. But for a match that featured only one guy I like, the other three did a bang up job of keeping me hooked. All of the exchanges between Hashimoto and Hase were great and reminded me of how good their singles matches were. Hashimoto brought out the best in Hase (from where I'm sitting at least), but I also enjoyed the Hase/Chono exchanges here more than I ever dreamed I would. I especially liked the early exchange where Hase was scurrying to escape Chono's attacks like a crab on its back. Chono vs. Muto is a match-up that's never appealed to me, but the brand of wrestling they plied was smooth and well executed, and didn't look out of place alongside the Hashimoto and Hase exchanges. They flirted with the tag wrestling tropes that were popular in All Japan and Joshi at the time, but didn't lay it on as thick. I think you could argue that there was a double FIP segment with Hase then Muto, but it didn't really last as long as a FIP segment does and wasn't nearly as pronounced. Part of that was because Hase's selling on the outside was kind of lousy, but the tempo was also somewhere between the slow burning/big pay-off All Japan style and the ultra fast Joshi style, and Hase was more ura-nage happy at the end than near death. That was okay, though. While it didn't have the depth of an All Japan tag, or the emotion of a Joshi bout, it was entertaining and swashbuckling in a sense (and I do mean that as a pun.) The finish had a kick to it and reminded me of a catch and shoot buzzer beater, and I guess you could buy into the psychology of former rivals linking up to take home the big prize if you wanted to psycho-analyse the bout. Can't say Hase looked like any more of a world-beater but it was a lot of fun.

If the discussion is about whether he was a great rudo then of course I'm going to compare him to other great rudos, especially his peers. Being a capable rudo seems a fair way off what Jimmy was implying. I think Panther was good as the third guy in a rudo trio with two other charismatic performers but never that good as the second guy, and I can t remember him ever having a great lead performance In a trios bout. Having said that, I really don't like mask ripping in trios matches and that was often a staple of Panther's rudo work. I agree that he gets a free ride. He's a guy that was always known as that great lucha worker and mat worker that everyone talked about who never got much scrutiny. I admit I have an idealised version of Panther and that many of my disappointments are because he didn't match my ideal, but I don't see why his bad work should be brushed under the carpet just because he's Blue Panther and a luchador and lucha needs all the support it can get.

I don't even think he was impressive at that, but honestly being the foil, or supporting act, in a trios match is such an important part of a rudo's role that it's still a fail in my book.

Keep watching for it.

I don't think Panther is a great rudo. In fact, I find a lot of his rudo trios work to pretty weak in comparison to guys like Satanico, Emilio Charles Jr, Fuerza Guerrera or Fiera. As a singles match worker, I guess he was better as a rudo, but he was never really booked in apuesta feuds so it wasn't a big part of his character.

I don't think Breaks would have gotten over in either America or Japan, but that's a discussion for the Breaks thread. I don't really get why people care about those sort of things either. The most important thing to me is how good a guy is in their natural setting not an imaginary one.

Why would you give Tenryu points for SWS or WAR? Both promotions were failures and the only reason Tenryu "traveled" so much is because they were losing money. You're rewarding mediocrity and punishing excellence in terms of Misawa's drawing power.

Do intangibles take into account the claims of over-emoting and too much crying, a lack of character development, or the way he'd get the yips any time a mic was placed in his face? Because if they factor in the flip-side to traditional Japanese stoicism then they should weigh in some of Kobashi's negatives too. Regarding Kobashi's appeal, Japanese fight pundits have traditionally favoured the underdog, the guy who puts up a fight despite being hopelessly out matched, or the guy who shows good technique regardless of being outclassed, and I think that had a lot to do with Kobashi's popularity as a young man. Of course, it's easier for us to relate to those performances than the restraint other performers show, but I think rather than some kind of universal appeal, or intrinsic "likeability," it's something that we as a foreign audience are drawn to when trying to decipher and decode a text we don't fully understand. I don't think it's a surprise that the word charisma comes up so often in conversations about foreign workers as that's something that people cling to when they're trying to make sense of what they're watching. With Kobashi, I think he had as much direct appeal to his audience as Misawa and wasn't simply a type of charismatic performer who could get over anywhere.

The biggest problem with Rudge is that he only appeared on ITV during the 80s a total of 22 times. I'm fortunate in that I think I've seen most of those, but I don't think you can really talk about Rudge having volume. Granted, a lot of those 22 matches are good, but you look at years where Rudge would have been in his prime like '80-82 and we have a total of 4 matches. That was his choice to tour foreign lands, but I can't stay I'm a huge fan of his later ITV appearances or his Reslo work. His '87 Germany work is better than anything he did on ITV after '85.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 54 Jim Breaks vs. Johnny Saint (3/1/86) I've seen this before at some point but was able to enjoy it more this time as two vets in "touring match" mode. Saint looked better than Breaks, which is in keeping with how good he's looked in '87-88 footage lately and the fact he was younger. Breaks looked like the guy who appeared on ITV in '86 and '87 as well as in later handhelds. The '84 classic with Collins is a clear end point for high quality Breaks, but this isn't bad as far as either Screensport or post-prime Breaks go. Prince Mann Singh vs. Bearcat Brody (WAW circa 1990) Young Apollo vs. Sledgehammer Baker (WAW circa 1990) These were from a short-lived TV series that Pallo's WWA promotion had that aired on Central TV in the Midlands. I didn't think the matches were particularly bad (of course they weren't great), but apparently they were aimed at the American market and put Pallo offside with his fellow promoters. Watch the latter bout if you're interested in them from either a kitsch or historical point-of-view since it has a Cornette style manager in Megamouth Vincent and a worker who's kind of trying to be jacked up. Scrubber Daly vs. Greg Valentine (2/12/85) Part of him wondered if Max Crabtree would rather incredulously have his son beat Scrubber Daly but then sanity prevailed and Valentine wasn't able to continue because of injury. He did get the surprisingly opening fall, though, which meant he was a talent. Steve Wright vs. Larry Cameron (Eurosport circa 1991) Steve Wright & Dave Taylor vs. Larry Cameron & The Barbarian (Eurosport circa 1991) These were crap as you can imagine. Sometimes I daydream that there are endless Steve Wright matches out there like the Bull Blitzer match against Marty Jones and the long early 70s match against Keith Martinelli.

The early part of this reminded me of things I don't like about Hase such as the way he'd dance while he had someone in a hold, or clap his hands and point to the crowd. That sort of thing is a lot more fun when someone like Kyoko Inoue does it. Hase has never struck me as anything more than adequate on the mat and the kind of guy who'd rather do gymnastics on the mat than actually wrestle. I always find that disappointing since he went to the Olympics as an amateur, but it's part of his charm and charisma that I just don't get. The idea here was that the bigger Fuyuki was looking to bulldoze Hase, but aside from his size, there really wasn't much Fuyuki could do to hurt Hase. Hase, who's never been that convincing seller to begin with, pretty much had to oversell how much jeopardy he was in. Fuyuki had a nice german but not a lot of stuff that could truly put Hase away, and although the crowd got into the stretch run, Hase had way bigger stuff in his holster. Yeah, the point was to work a competitive midcard bout, but matches like this always kind of bother me when the stakes don't match the fight. And without trying to pick on the guy, could his angry shouts be any less guttural? I will endeavor to say something nice about him, though. He had a truly beautiful Northern Lights suplex. That throw was a thing of beautiful. Match plodded along, but the crowd propped it up.

Hiroshi Hase vs Ricky Fuyuki (6/17/93) The early part of this reminded me of things I don't like about Hase such as the way he'd dance while he had someone in a hold, or clap his hands and point to the crowd. That sort of thing is a lot more fun when someone like Kyoko Inoue does it. Hase has never struck me as anything more than adequate on the mat and the kind of guy who'd rather do gymnastics on the mat than actually wrestle. I always find that disappointing since he went to the Olympics as an amateur, but it's part of his charm and charisma that I just don't get. The idea here was that the bigger Fuyuki was looking to bulldoze Hase, but aside from his size, there really wasn't much Fuyuki could do to hurt Hase. Hase, who's never been that convincing seller to begin with, pretty much had to oversell how much jeopardy he was in. Fuyuki had a nice german but not a lot of stuff that could truly put Hase away, and although the crowd got into the stretch run, Hase had way bigger stuff in his holster. Yeah, the point was to work a competitive midcard bout, but matches like this always kind of bother me when the stakes don't match the fight. And without trying to pick on the guy, could his angry shouts be any less guttural? I will endeavor to say something nice about him, though. He had a truly beautiful Northern Lights suplex. That throw was a thing of beautiful. Match plodded along, but the crowd propped it up.

Pierre Combrouste vs. Ted Lamarre (1/22/60) Nice little one fall opener between two lighter weight wrestlers. I wouldn't say matches like this became rare as the years progressed, but they certainly became less earnest as exhibitions of wrestling skill gave way to a higher propensity towards flashy moves. It was cool watching two small guys work a competitive wrestling match between them at their weight class instead of trying to up show the bigger guys. Paul Villars vs. Michel Allary (1/22/60) Allary seems to be a personal favourite of Bob ALPRA. I wonder if it's because of his career being cut short while in full bloom. It's neat watching a bout like this and seeing how "universal" wrestling tropes were on the continent. You had the slightly stocky Villars (complete w/ moustache) working all sorts of inside moves against the good looking, clean cut Allary, including that most unsporting of European heel acts: attacking your man while he's down. Villars gave Allary's back a working over, and Allary responded with clubbing forearm blows. When the match was worked on even terms, Allary dominated with his skill, and Villars had no answer for him. He resorted to inside moves and the cycle continued. A simple formula, but fun to watch.

It was interesting watching the Yoshimura match that GOTNW posted as it seems all you ever read about Gotch is people debating how tough he really was or claiming he couldn't work the type of matches that draw. He looked pretty good on the mat though he was taking it kind of easy on Yoshimura. I would have liked to have seen the Japanese worker fight a bit harder to get a limb.

Espanto wasn't really a no-namer. He was a tailor-made rival for Santo when he first donned the "El Hijo del Santo" gimmick in the early 80s as the original Espantos had feuded with his father in the 60s, and became one of Santo's first and longest career rivals. Santo took Espanto's mask in '86 and they continued to have a long feud involving numerous hair vs. mask matches and title bouts, During the years that Santo worked for UWA, Espanto was second only to Casas in terms of Santo rivals and even then it was pretty close. When UWA started to fold, Espanto jumped to AAA. He wrestled as himself for a few years then AAA owner Antonio Pena tried repacking him as "El Santo Negro" (an evil version of Santo) and then Pentagon (an evil version of Octagon.) He had a terrible in-ring injury working as Pentagon and actually died in the ring before being revived. The source of this footage is from a DVD he was selling at live shows to support himself.

I think I love that Hashimoto/Fujiwara match more than is humanly possible. It's pretty much a masterpiece in terms of how I'd want to see those two workers square off. I would have been disappointed if it had been "bigger" in any way.

I don't see how Taue was good enough mechanically to be in anyone's top 10. A big part of his charm was is awkwardness, and how he overcame his limitations with time and even smoothed them out in some cases. It seems to me that there are too many workers out there with great mechanics and a high output. Taue/Hase/Windham is like arguing who places where in the 35-25 range.

There's nothing I really like about Hase. He wrestles so much like a Joshi worker that I'd rather just watch Joshi, but I'm gonna check out a few of his recommended matches until either develop a liking for him or tap out.

I hoped you watched the '78 one and not the All-Star one from '85.

More random shit: Steve Logan vs. John Elijah (mid-80s) Think crotch-o-vision only exists with Joshi handhelds? Think again! It's kind of hard to tell what's going on in a bout when you're having a sneak peak at Stevie Logan's butt he entire time. Logan's butt looked pretty good, not sure about the bout. Alan Dennison vs. Rick Wiseman (5/28/83) Last few moments of a bout that had "better luck next time, Ricky Wiseman" written all over it. Pete Lapaque vs. Danny Boy Collins (2/2/84) Lapaque delivers a fair-sized beating to Collins then Danny Boy wins on one of the quickest count-outs ever. Big Daddy/Andy Blair vs. King Kendo/The Spoiler (9/16/87) Kendo and The Spoiler were being managed here by Dr. Monika Kaiser, a German woman who was allegedly a taxi driver from Leeds. She showed plenty of thigh stepping into the ring and Walton seemed to fancy her. His exact words were "slicey," and yeah, I had to look that up too. Kaiser berated Daddy in German, Daddy took care of business, and the Spoiler was very nearly unmasked. Haystacks showed up at ringside for the next bout and they teased Haystacks/Daddy II for the millionth time. Surely, they didn't think that would turn things around in '87. A bunch of local kids flooded the ring to join the "easy" chants and tell Haystacks what a wanker he was. From a safe distance of course. Mick McManus vs. John Naylor (11/18/80) Tally Ho Kaye vs. Pat Patton (11/18/80) Tally Ho Kaye vs. Young David (11/18/80) Chris Adams vs. Mick McManus (11/18/80) These were heats for the 25th Anniversary Knock Out Trophy that would eventually be won by Al Kilby. It was new footage, but don't get too excited because they're short tournament bouts followed by two quarterfinals where the first to 10 throws advances to the semis. The McManus/Adams bout was hokey as shit as McManus was leading 9-1 before Adams' comeback. Mohammed Butt vs. Barry Douglas (10/15/86) This was shockingly decent considering how awful Butt was and how boring and bland Douglas could be. Maybe I was in a trance while watching it, but the slower pace seemed to help Butt work through his holds. Pat Roach, John Elijah & Jamaica George vs. Giant Haystacks, Scrubber Daly & Rasputin (12/16/87) Poor old Jamaica George. Even in a six-man tag he was the one taking a beating and that was with Walton reminding us constantly of how good looking he was. I wonder if woke up in a cold sweat having nightmares about Stax. Of course what he all wanted to see was Roach kick the shit out of Stax, and of course we didn't get to see it. Same old bullshit when it came to the big man's booking.

I get the Fat Elvis stuff, but if there was one guy who looked like a modern day samurai it was Hashimoto. He could have slot right into an NHK costume drama. If you ask me the sole reason he rose to the heights he did was because of his bushido. I can't think of a single Japanese star who had the same aura. Plenty of them were tough, plenty of them were stoic, and plenty of them commanded respect, but none of them had the same fire. Plus his theme music was really, really cool.

The Widowmaker gimmick wasn't exactly tailor-made. He was basically a blonde, more athletic version of Outlaw Ron Bass. When he did a similar sort of gimmick in '93 he was badass. I'm indifferent to a lot of his longer singles matches, especially where he's a babyface, but I love his early 90s heel work and he was a great tag wrestler.

There's no doubt that Breaks captivated audiences more than Grey. Breaks was pretty special in the 30+ year history of wrestling on ITV. His TV appearance record is testament to that, and he essentially rivals McManus when it comes to presence, but when you think of what Grey accomplished as just a kid from Peckham, London, it's almost more impressive in a way. The Grey who debuted in the early 70s could have been like any number of debutantes who fade away as their pushes dwindle, but Grey became a mainstay as a face, which to me is a huge indicator of skill.

I haven't counted how many Cortez bouts there are on tape, or how many I've seen, but I guess it's between 20-30. The only problem I have with saying that's enough for me is that I like him far more in the 80s than 70s, and he jumps to All-Star, which means bye-bye footage. He's also deceptively old in the footage we have, so it's hard to pinpoint his prime and all that. But he's just do great in his early 80s run. I don't know how much of that run is still unearthed, but I'd jump to see any of it.

A few things: If such a rabbit hole existed, Myers would be far from the first guy I'd choose. I find it hard to believe there are a ton of entertaining Myers matches out there when so much made tape already. I don't see how he's joined to the hip with Grey. Grey clearly has more good matches on tape than Myers. If you ever hear Myers speak, you may have a different opinion of whether he could get over in certain territories. No mention of Iron Fist? I'd love to know what people think of his Bruce Lee ripoff compared with Cool Clive, the West Indian.