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THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 40 Burslam, 9/27/86 Knockout tournament: Blondie Barratt/Rocky Moran vs. Brian Maxine/Keith Myatt Clive Myers/Fuji Yamada vs. John Wilkie/Zigue Zag Myers/Yamada vs. Barratt/Moran This was by far the best episode of Satellite Wrestling on Screensport I've seen. It wasn't as though the wrestling was a match for WoS in its pomp, but it was consistently entertaining from top to bottom, and so long as you drown out the moronic commentators there's a lot to enjoy. Judging by this, the one area where increased exposure to American bouts improved British wrestling was tag wrestling. At least during the '74-84 period that I'm most familiar with. The tag wrestling from Paul Lincoln Promotions in the 60s looked pretty good. These matches had 15 minute time limits, but they managed to work in the FIP elements that are so often missing from British wrestling and the heels got tremendous heat, especially Barratt, who was slapped in the face by one woman, attacked on the apron by another, and chewed out by an irate father carrying his baby under one arm. Brian Maxine did a surprisingly good job of playing a fired up babyface in the first bout. It was much better than his other face work I've seen. Yamada was making his television debut and was keen to impress. He looked a thousand times better here than in his Reslo bouts. Myers also looked slick and complemented him well. I've grown to accept his Ironfist gimmick for what it was. I still hate it compared to the simple trunks and boots, but such a huge chunk of his career was as Ironfist that you've got to accept it. When he's on point, there's no-one in British wrestling who's as exciting to watch. Moran was also good. I was sky high on him when I first encountered his work then he tailed off badly, but here he was the Emilio Charles Jr style foil I loved so much from his ITV work. Even the lesser guys like journeyman Wilkie, potbellyed local Keith Myatt, and some fella called Chris McNeill doing a Bobby Barnes inspired "punk rock" gimmick, brought something to the table here. There was some bullshit in the final with Moran and Barratt challenging Clive Myers to arm wrestling contests (those of you familiar with Myers will know he was a legit world champion arm wrestler), but all up an entertaining hour. Yamada even cuts a promo in English and since it's the last show of the series there's a post-match vignette where Rocco attacks the commentators with a cake (what else?) Amusing that this was the last episode ever made and the only one I enjoyed.

A lot of people said that the Kobashi/Hansen match the night before Hansen/Taue is better because Kobashi has better offense than Taue and his win over Hansen means more. They're totally different matches as the rib injury occurs literally halfway through the Kobashi bout whereas with the Taue match it's the focus right from the start. The Kobashi bout has a bigger feel to it with more of the back and forth beginning you'd expect from two guys who are healthy. Kobashi does have better offense than Taue and is a better athlete. What he's not as good at in this two match comparison is selling. He looks like some kind of string puppet the way he sells. He was trying to be dramatic, but it was awkward looking. Hansen sold his demise well, as you'd expect, but it wasn't a truly great match despite the crowd reaction, and the Taue match seemed cooler to me.

I can't remember if they had a great match in their series, but I definitely remember enjoying the series as a whole. It doesn't really hold a candle to Savage/Santana or Savage/Steamboat, though, which makes it a non-entry into the greatest in-ring feuds of 1980s WWF.

I think Hansen's work improved as the house style changed. I don't think there's any way he could have worked the matches I've watched of late against Kawada or Taue a decade earlier. There wasn't the same focus on the moment-to-moment build as there was in the early 90s and not as much focus on selling and receiving damage. Hansen deserves a ton of credit for adapting to the changes in the company's style and excelling at the new match structure, but I think it was the change in style that prompted it more than a change in roles. I dunno if he was playing a different role in the 80s, or simply protecting his spot, but the focus ought to be on whether it was any good. A lot of his 80s work seems aimless to me. I think he makes poor decisions on a moment-to-moment basis and his character work borders on self-parody at times. I don't mind if he's guzzling opponents. It's the mechanics that bother me, specifically not being able to work over an opponent in an interesting way or crappy/predictable brawling on the outside. Things you wouldn't really associate with Hansen in general.

Haven't watched lucha for ages. Didn't know where to start so I started all over the place. Blue Panther/Guerrero Negro vs. Huracán Sevilla/Gran Hamada (Monterrey 1991) I love Huracan Sevilla. Everything I've read about his reign of terror at Pavillón Azteca as Darth Vader seems the stuff of lucha journeyman legend. Terrorising toys, puppets and cartoon characters is surreal enough, but having his partners turn on him, and losing his mask to a local star in Guatemala, only adds to the legend. I liked him as the highly unnecessary Huracán Ramírez II and loved his run without a hood. I don't know much about his later gimmicks, but if you're a lucha fan you learn to love journeymen in a country where there's been literally hundreds upon hundreds of professional wrestlers. This started off with some welcome mat exchanges between Sevilla and Blue Panther, who I believe was in his prime in 1991. That was followed by some slick exchanges between Guerrero Negro and Gran Hamada, who execution wise was a notch above all but the best Mexican wrestlers. There wasn't a lot of Panther vs. Hamada exchanges in this, which was strange because the upshot of it all was that Hamada issued a challenge for Panther's mask while Sevilla demanded a wager with Negro, but the exchanges we did get between Panther and Hamada were promising and suggested other matches of theirs out there where they lit things up. This followed a generic tag structure of matwork in the first fall, rudo brawling/dominance in the second, and high flying in the third. It had its high points like Guerrero Negro single-handedly winning the second fall by almost putting Hamada on the shelf with a botched double leg takedown on Hamada then getting the same takedown right on Sevilla and following it up with a neat submission. There was also some cool teamwork on a Negro tope where Panther gave him an irish whip assist. Negro sold the tope like he'd wrecked his shoulder, which he may well have. I tend to come out of most Monterrey matches thinking "well, that could have been better," and lucha tags are underwhelming at the best of times, but this had its moments here and there. There was a time when Monterrey meant a lot more money in your pocket, but by this stage it was an extra date and an extra payday. La Parka, Octagon, Latin Lover, Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera, Pentagon, Psicosis (AAA 7/28/95) Everybody knows AAA isn't my favourite type of lucha so I'm not going to get into that again, but I actually enjoyed this. The opening exchanges between Octagon and Pentagon were awful, but as soon as the ring was cleared of that pair the bout was snappy and entertaining. Originally, I was going to write it up for Your Fuerza Guerrera of the Hour, but it was closer to Your La Parka of the hour. His former partners were lining up to get their shots in, but nothing they did could stop him from dancing. Fuerza vs. Parka was awesome and worthy of a singles match. Psicosis was his usual dynamic self (and really, I don't think it ever got better for him than during this AAA run), and Mysterio also looked sharp. The only member of this crew that really delivered below expectations was Pentagon. I'm a big fan of Espanto Jr., but he had an off night here. That was all right as the match moved on without him and the third caida dive train was full of all sorts of goodness. Rey and Psicosis brought a bit more of their touring match act to Mexico than I'm used to seeing and it gelled nicely with the send 'em home happy nature of the third caida. There wasn't much of a through line as the Pentagon/Octagon stuff fell part, but two thumbs up for this. Bestia Salvaje/La Fiera/Jerry Estrada vs. Huracan Sevilla/Blue Demon Jr./El Hijo del Solitario (1/17/92) This was another chapter in the lead-in to the Huracan Sevilla vs. Bestia hair match; a match I may be higher on than any other person on the internet if not the planet. Bestia was an elite worker at this point and able to carry a trios with only a limited number of appearances. Who brings Blue Demon Jr and El Hijo del Solitario to a fight? I've said that before about Sevilla. He was left with the dregs when it came to partners while Bestia had his running mates with him each time. A guy like Matt D would love the snear Fiera has on his face the first time he squares off with Solitario. The brawling exchanges between Bestia and Sevilla were outstanding here and a focal point throughout. Bestia was clearly higher in the pecking order and made no bones about it, but Sevilla got to make a valiant comeback. Eventually, he was overwhelmed and bled about as heavily as was possible in 1992. Someone in the crowd offered Sevilla a tissue, but Bestia was too busy beating his ass. Blue Demon Jr. and Solitario actually managed a pair of cool looking topes (in real time that is; Solitaro looked to have overshot his badly on the replay), but the tecnico reply was snuffed out by a clever Bestia and the rudos took round one in the march to the apuestas. Remo Banda/Aguila Solitaria vs. Leon Chino/Comando Ruso (5/4/90) Remo Banda is the greatest looking motherfucker in lucha ever. He looks like the sixth member of the Blue Oyster Cult. I've enjoyed the Leon Chino I've seen before but he was the third best guy in this. Ruso was the consummate journeyman and carried Solitaria through some pretty looking arm drag exchanges. This bout was a lot of fun. In many ways, it was the type of bout that shows the essence of lucha. Banda had taken Russo's hair earlier that year, but you'd hardly notice it from the bout. Their job was to put on an undercard match that entertained the fans and they achieved that by working quintessential lucha exchanges. The hardest of hardcore fans would enjoy the staples they ran through here. A nice piece of undercard wrestling, which isn't something that gets a ton of love in lucha circles. Atlantis/Shocker/Satanico vs. Tarzan Boy/Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero (2/1/02) A while back, Matt D tried to tell me this was better than the classic 1997 minis trios. I can see why Matt liked it more according to his philosophies, but that's not an idea I'm going to entertain. Instead I'll focus on the fact that it was a pretty good bout. The version I watched was slightly sped up in the first and second falls, but even with the video quality issues I could tell this was a fairly classic brawling trios. There were more moves-per-fall than in a classic lead-in trios, but the gist was the same. I was impressed with Satanico during the bout. As big a Satanico fan as I am, I kind of give up on him around 1996-97 and haven't see much of his later stuff. In fact, elliot from the board has probably seen more Satanico than me at this point. I didn't think this was overly special in the context of all the brawling trios lead-in bouts I've seen before, but it was plenty entertaining and a sign that 00s Satanico might be worth exploring.

Their Champion Carnival bout from '94.

I liked the Kana match from 2010 a lot, though it was a bit "on the nose" with its transitions. I can see how Meiko's stiff strike-based style appeals, though. Her submission work is good as well and her moves have plenty of impact. Kana was pretty good as well if not wholly organic. Will watch more.

I liked the Felino mask vs. mask match, but the title matches are underwhelming. Ramirez would have needed a much longer run to be a significant part of the lucha bloc. I doubt Solar will make the list and he's had a considerably better career. Hell, I'm not sure that Ramirez was better than Huracán Sevilla or Mano Negra.

Man, was that Taue match good. For a man the size of Hansen to sell that well was phenomenal. The thing that impressed me most was his comeback. One of my least favourite things in wrestling is when a guy takes a beating for what seems like an eternity and then the comeback starts and all of a sudden it's even stevens. The way Hansen worked his way back into the match here was as believable as it gets. He was basically like a wounded animal fighting and clawing his way out, Taue was fabulous as well. He could've easily oversold it, but instead he sold it just right, weathering the storm and not letting his opportunity to topple Hansen slip. Taue was on point in this bout. The opening exchange took me aback. What a great start to the bout. Almost like sumo brawling.

Man was that Taue match good. For a man the size of Hansen to sell that well was phenomenal. The thing that impressed me most was his comeback. One of my least favourite things in wrestling is when a guy takes a beating for what seems like an eternity and then the comeback starts and all of a sudden it's even stevens. The way Hansen worked his way back into the match here was as believable as it gets. He was basically like a wounded animal fighting and clawing his way out, Taue was fabulous as well. He could've easily oversold it, but instead he sold it just right, weathering the storm and not letting his opportunity to topple Hansen slip. Taue was on point in this bout. The opening exchange took me aback. What a great start to the bout. Almost like sumo brawling.

Watched the 11/94 Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue match, which I'm not sure I'd seen before. Kawada and Taue certainly did work as heels here and Kawada was much more aggressive and niggly. I wonder how many of my perceptions of Kawada are based on this tag feud. As for the match, I kind of drifted in and out of it. It was good, but I say that as more of an acknowledgement than with any real conviction. I wouldn't say they were going through the motions, but it was a standard All Japan tag and that involves a lot of the same old stuff. As usual my interest was piqued during the finishing stretch, but they weren't up for a big run home on this particular night and were booked into a corner anyway w/ the draw. I haven't watched All Japan for a while and Kobashi and Taue seemed foreign to me. Misawa didn't look anywhere near as good as the last time I watched him either. Personally, I need to be in the groove to watch individual styles of wrestling otherwise I zone out a bit, but nobody really struck me as delivering a world class performance on this night.

A poor finish generally sours me on a match, particularly if I've watching something random as it makes it seem like a waste of time. If it's a match I'm enjoying I can go both ways -- either sorely disappointed or philosophical -- but I don't think I've ever shrugged off a bad finish and thought "oh well." I may not be fussed if the match is mediocre, but they're almost always annoying and a match would almost always better with a proper finish. We spend a lot of time talking about the way matches build and by that we mean the way they build to a conclusion. If the conclusion's poor then it has an effect on the rest of the match. BS finishes can be effective if they're heated and well executed. I like a good BS finish if it's done right.

From memory, Arn was amazing in 1992. I had him and Steamboat as joint MVPs for that year during my WCW viewing. But after '93 he was average by his own standards. Not sure if that equated to bad matches, but nothing I saw from Arn in '95 against Alex Wright, etc. left much of an impression on me and that was a year where I was actively looking for anything good from a severely weak year. There was the Stars and Stripes tag w/Vader, but no singles matches of note.

Hashimoto vs. Tanaka was fun. Not sure I'd include it in his greatest hits parade, but if you want to see him deliver a full on ass kicking it's worth watching.

I'm also not that fond of Hansen's 80s All Japan work. But I'm not all that fond of the house style either and I think that compounds things.

Dunno if you've seen it Phil, but there's another Cesca singles match out there against Rene Ben Chemoul.

The 1994 Carnival final is a great match. I don't know if I've fully appreciated it up until now. Again, there's a noticeable lift in intensity from Kawada. Every move is sold as though as it means something, and not in a self-conscious way, but because the stakes are so high and the jeopardy increases as the match progresses. I realise he was working against a bigger American, but again I was surprised by how much Kawada worked from underneath. He's nowhere near as aggressive as I imagined, or recollected, even when he's working from the top. Not compared with Tenryu. He was working as a total babyface, which is to be expected under the circumstances, but he strikes me as a bit more cerebral than the likes of Hashimoto or Tenryu whereas before I would have paired them as naturally aggressive workers. Williams also sold well. He had good chemistry with Kawada despite, or perhaps because of, them not getting along outside the ring, but something clicked with him in '94 and he realised how he could use his size and strength to full effect. It reminds me of watching a football player (whether it be rugby or American football) who's a pretty good player and then finally discovers beast mode.

The 1994 Carnival final is a great match. I don't know if I've fully appreciated it up until now. Again, there's a noticeable lift in intensity from Kawada. Every move is sold as though as it means something, and not in a self-conscious way, but because the stakes are so high and the jeopardy increases as the match progresses. I realise he was working against a bigger American, but again I was surprised by how much Kawada worked from underneath. He's nowhere near as aggressive as I imagined, or recollected, even when he's working from the top. Not compared with Tenryu. He was working as a total babyface, which is to be expected under the circumstances, but he strikes me as a bit more cerebral than the likes of Hashimoto or Tenryu whereas before I would have paired them as naturally aggressive workers. Williams also sold well. He had good chemistry with Kawada despite, or perhaps because of, them not getting along outside the ring, but something clicked with him in '94 and he realised how he could use his size and strength to full effect. It reminds me of watching a football player (whether it be rugby or American football) who's a pretty good player and then finally discovers beast mode.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 39 Zoltan Boscik vs. Kid McCoy (9/3/86) Boscik was another of the aging television vets the promoters leaned on in the mid-80s to break in the next generation of talent. He was pudgy and middle-aged at this point, and a shadow of the worker from those great Steve Grey matches, but his carry was effective enough. Not as good as some of the latter day Tally Ho Kaye stuff, but McCoy was only 15 here and Boscik fed him well. Perhaps too well as it was a bit anti-climatic when Boscik won. The Kid did go on to beat Boscik in the final of a Christmas knockout tournament in December that year, but Walton didn't link the two bouts together. Danny Boy Collins vs. Jacques Le Jacques (12/11/85) This was a European Welterweight title bout. Not a patch on some of the classic WoS title bouts, but an interesting bout to watch, which is all you can really hope for when you're combing through the dregs, or to put it more nicely, the B-sides and rarities. Jacques Le Jacques didn't really work a classic catch style and was obsessed with working his opponent's legs like few workers I've seen, but he was a decent enough hand. He tried to work heel, but couldn't really bait the crowd. Walton mentioned that if Collins successfully defended his European title he would be in line for a title shot against the world champion, referring to him only as "the Mexican." Not sure whom he meant by that, but the world champ at the time was actually El Dandy. Le Jacques went for the leg a lot, but this was decent enough. Big Daddy & Danny Boy Collins vs. Scrubber Daly & Lucky Gordon (7/25/84) The enjoyment factor of these Daddy tags is totally dependent on the heels. Scrubber Daly and Lucky Gordon were extremely competent Daddy opponents and the dynamic of young Danny Boy Collins being Daddy's partner and being given the room to shine (ha) made this an entertaining 10 minutes. People have commented numerous times about wrestlers like Collins having to carry the load in Big Daddy tags, but I can't imagine a 17 year old Collins being disappointed at wrestling in front of such a hot crowd and getting this much heat so early in his career. Another fun thing about these tags is the way the ring literally moves two or three inches every time Daddy or Daly are posted. It seems like Walton is exaggerating until you actually pay attention to it. Tally Ho Kaye vs. Steve Fury (2/5/85) Fury's television debut. Kaye tied him in knots during a one fall, ten minute time limit. Danny Boy Collins vs. Eddie Riley (10/9/84) Riley was a trainee of Marty Jones and a decent worker. Walton was high on him (undoubtedly because he was a trainee of Jones') and put over how quick and decisive he was with his decision making while lamenting the fact that he kept running out of mat with his pinning maneuvers. Some good action here but nothing overly special.

I don't get how people can say Watts' WCW was a failure compared to the rest of WCW's existence. I'd rather watch something from Watts' run than 1994, '96, '97, you name it.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 38 Marty Jones vs. Mark Rocco (6/8/88) Rocco cut a pretty decent promo before this. Jones' wasn't bad either if you can appreciate the charm of a straight talking, cross-eyed Marty Jones staring at the camera in different directions. There's two ways you can view this bout (no pun intended): you can either view it as a bastardised version of their 70s classics and you can look at it as one of the better bouts of 1988. Jones and Rocco hadn't squared off for quite some time as Jones had stayed pretty loyal to Max Crabtree and Joint Promotions while Rocco had been one of Brian Dixon's key draws for All-Star Promotions. Toward the end of the television era, there were a lot of guys moving back and forward between the promotions for bookings and hence we got one last chapter in this feud. It was pretty much wrestled in the All-Star style. Short flurries of action were followed by contentious moments and style ruled over substance. Rocco had gone through major back surgery a few years prior (and was at death's door for a number of days according to Walton) and was slightly less mobile than in his prime. He was still a madman but his back looked stiff. Jones provided some sweet looking offense as you'd expect. He'd packed on the pounds since the last time they fought, but if there was anything resembling their classic fights it came from him. Rocco bled in this, which was rare on British television but tended to happen in bouts involving Rocco (hmm.) The finish was the kind of Americanised stuff Dixon made his coin shilling. Both men were DQ'ed for hitting the ref, Jones got on the mic demanding the bout continue and they half-arsed their way backstage where the "brawling" supposedly continued. It's actually an insult to American wrestling to call it "Americanised" as they did such a piss poor job at emulating US style wrestling. Dave Finlay vs. Boston Blackie (Ladder match, Caernarfon, taped 2/27/95) This was interesting. Finlay looked almost exactly the same as the guy who showed up in WCW and attacked Steve Regal, and his work was better than it had been in nigh on a decade. I can't stand ladder matches as a rule, but was taken by the fact that Finlay looked so good. So there you go: at some point before entering WCW, Finlay shook off his malaise and fixed whatever it was that was blogging down his matches. Kung Fu vs. Lucky Gordon (11/5/86) I'm surprised Kung Fu ever graced a Joint Promotions ring again after walking out on them ahead of the big Rocco match at the Royal Albert Hall. The 1985-86 period is better than I've given it credit for in the past as there was plenty of good stuff on the early stand alone shows, but matches like this show how thin the talent roster was. Lucky Gordon vs. Kung Fu didn't really mean anything to anybody in 1986 and wasn't going to get anyone excited about the crappy new time slot. That said, Kung Fu did enough to at least make it painless to watch, and as limited as Gordon was, he was a pro at putting guys over.

I watched the 4/94 Kawada bout and it's amazing the step up in intensity from anything else I've watched. Suddenly, every hold matters and the attention to detail is tenfold over anything else, and it's not even that good a match. The whole Kawada's a heel thing is all while and good except for the fact that he seldom works the same heel role against other opponents. And even against Misawa, I had a hard time buying him as the straight up heel he's meant to be. Maybe it's a mental block on my side, but the history between the two seems like it has more bearing on the match dynamic than heel/face structures.

The Rutten match was interesting. It was kind of like watching a guy who wasn't entirely comfortable at working a pro-wrestling match against a guy who wasn't entirely confident at doing a worked shoot. Rutten seems like a guy who would have been a natural at pro-wrestling if he'd spent more time doing it. He grew into the bout as it progressed, though at 10 three minute rounds you'd hope he might settle down a bit. Nothing they did blew me away, but it was perfectly solid. Rutten hadn't really moved on from mid-90s Pancrase in terms of his fighting style so it wasn't really cutting edge shoot style stuff, but I enjoyed it.

That's weird because I remember him being all over the WCW shows we got in New Zealand.