ohtani's jacket

Dave doesn't seem to understand they put a limited number of tickets on sale.

I want to vouch for the Misterioso/Fuerza title match. I had a pretty cynical take on it at first, but the third fall won me over completely.

See, I told you to start with this stuff!

Virus vs. Dragon Lee, CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship, CMLL 12/9/14 Virus' Super Lightweight title reign has been like manna from heaven for lucha fans. For years, Virus was a guy who was only ever showcased in lightning matches. Frustratingly, a great many of those years were right smack dab in the middle of his prime. Even fans who don't see eye to eye wanted him featured in longer singles bouts. That opportunity arose in 2011 when CMLL took an overtimes overlooked and inactive belt and turned it into a showcase for not only Virus but some of the company's best young talent. Since then the maestro has proven to be, without a shadow of a doubt, the best title match worker in CMLL today and probably one of the greatest of all-time. 2014 was the year of the Virus title match with a whopping four of them. And while I think his form was generally better in the first half of the year, I was happy to see him him cranking out the near classics through to December. The first fall was less intricate than a lot of Virus' primera caida work this year. At first I thought Virus was trying to ground Lee, not only because he comes out all jacked up on Nelly, but because his kicks to the face had given Virus such grief in their lightning match. Watching it again, I noticed Virus trying to start something cool by fighting for the arm but Lee didn't follow his lead. That points to Lee's inexperience, but I could also listen to an argument that Virus should have worked from the top more and made Lee fight harder for his holds. Virus was schooled in that old-school mentality of "if you want the arm, you've got to take the arm." Here he really gave Lee the fall, said you're going over, and took a bit of a backseat to the direction the fall headed in. That led to a poorly coordinated finish that would have looked choreographed even if it had been smooth. The overlap between falls meant that Lee continued his momentum through to the segunda caida where his offence continued to appear haphazard, but a bigger sin was that Virus' transition back onto offence lacked imagination. A baseball slide to the outside and a fake out in the ropes was all it took for the maestro to take over, and even though it's cool that he can spring a flash submission from anywhere, this match up was two from two in average falls. The third fall was where things began to improve. Virus started the fall with some nasty looking arm work that was easily the most badass thing to happen in the match up to that point. Lee then sprang a tope from nowhere. Ordinarily, I'd hate a spot like that, but here I thought the structure was interesting. Oftentimes in lucha, missed moves carry more weight than moves which actually hit. Everyone at some point or another has made the criticism that the guy hit by the tope was the first to recover. If some grad student were to conduct research into the amount of times the injured party hit the very next move, the tope would probably be viewed as a poor option. In this instance, however, Lee was able to capitalise on it, and it really did function as a momentum shift. Suddenly, Lee's work had a zest to it and he barreled through a series of nearfalls. Another highlight reel dive followed and it was clear Lee was in his element now. Everything he did during the stretch run had a snap to it than the first fall lacked. The trading of german suplexes, and Virus only just managing to get a foot on the ropes during a count, reminded me of the adage I learnt during the Fuerza/Misterioso fight: it doesn't matter how you start so long as you finish strong. Virus took it to another level by countering Lee's sliding baseball kick into a crossface. Lee came back strong with his kick variations -- the front dropkick into the corner, the baseball slide to the face, and the tree of woe into the diving stomp. What cost Lee in the end wasn't that he couldn't go toe to toe with Virus, but that he sent him a letter during the final standoff first by telegraphing his hurricanrana attempt then feeding him the arm when Virus caught his leg. During the first caida, Lee had hit the hurricanrana and managed to out fake Virus in the same exchange where Virus caught his leg, but you don't give a wrestler the class of VIrus a second look at the same exchange. He was also a bit naive by not following up his big sliding kick to Virus' face with a cover (that actually seemed like a legitimate misread by Lee, but the narrative covered for it.) The actual finish wasn't executed as smoothly as Virus would have liked, but as usual he managed a well paced, well sold caida where it was believable that he might lose and his relief at getting the submission was palpable. In some respects, Virus' title matches got worse as the year progressed, or at least lazier in their build. There was a line of thinking that Lee hung better with Virus than some of this other title match opponents this year, but I don't know that I'd agree with that. He stepped up his execution in the tercera caida and his timing was a lot better, but he's a definitely work in progress. Virus should shoulder the blame for the first two falls being the average CMLL fare, but the final caida was the type of solid lucha you expect from a worker of his calibre. It'll be a sad day when they finally take this belt off him, but I'm curious to see whom they put over him.

This website has some photos of different sized Tokyo Dome crowds: http://enuhito.com/archives/51935637.html

That includes the seating behind the stage. For big musical acts, the stands to the right and left of the stage sell out, but New Japan doesn't bother trying to sell those tickets. Their Dome show set up (which they claim is 36k) is a cresant like shape facing the ring and stage.

I don't believe that Dave was worked on the advance ticket sales. It doesn't make much sense for New Japan to stop selling the best seats for the purpose of working an attendance number. My guess is that the best seats sold faster than last year and they thought they'd fill out the stands more. The stadium isn't set up for 50 or 60k because of the stage and ramp. That number is a misconception of what constitutes a sellout. A sellout is closer to 42k. I don't really believe they got 36k paid given they were selling tickets at the door. When an event sells out the Tokyo Dome, it's usually in a matter of minutes. I've never heard of it selling out over a mattet of weeks.

Prior to the show, almost all of the arena seats were sold out (the section where the baseball diamond is) and most of the 2F Stand A tickets (which are the middle priced tickets in the stands.) The rest of the tickets were sold right up until the day and they probably figured that since the advance was good they'd sell more tickets in the stands. I don't believe they set it up for 36k. That's bullshit. A few years back Tokyo hosted a rugby match between New Zealand and Australia at the old National Olympic Stadium. The exact same situation happened -- the most expensive tickets sold out along with the most moderately priced ones -- and to save face the Japan Rugby Football Union papered the crowd by giving away a bunch of tickets to high school players. You just stick the kanji for "manin" (full house, no vacancy) next to the figure and you've got a sell out. I doubt they even got 36k paid.

That's not outrageous.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (1/4/15) * The Tanahashi/Okada match was far from the best in their series. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think that type of praise is predetermined. The early feeling out period was deathly dull. Striker tried to sell it like Tanahashi hadn't gotten out of the blocks yet, but early Okada control work is never that interesting. He even flirted with the same guardrail shit he does every match, but turned it into a DDT instead. * The match picked up when Tanahashi took over, and I actually think his strikes have improved in recent times, though there's still a lot of air when he sells them. The match built pretty well from there with the HFF to the outside over the guardrail being a memorable spot, but they missed a beat on that Rainmaker kick out. That should have been a much bigger moment. Why it wasn't part of the finishing stretch is beyond me? It didn't help that they cut to a long shot of Tanahashi's Rainmaker pose, then a crowd shot, before cutting back to the kick out sequence from a strange angle. * As usual, the finishing stretch was the best part of the bout and I dug Tanahashi immobilising Okada with the dragon screw leg whips before the finish. The match didn't feel at all special and wasn't helped by JR going into full on hype mode. JR praising it as an all-time great match was always going to be unconvincing, but it was annoying nonetheless. I wasn't down with Okada crying either, but at least Tanahashi was a prick to him on the mic. * I'm going *** 3/4 on this one with the 3/4 being a decent stretch run.

The Tanahashi/Okada match was far from the best in their series. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think that type of praise is predetermined. The early feeling out period was deathly dull. Striker tried to sell it like Tanahashi hadn't gotten out of the blocks yet, but early Okada control work is never that interesting. He even flirted with the same guardrail shit he does every match, but turned it into a DDT instead. The match picked up when Tanahashi took over, and I actually think his strikes have improved in recent times, though there's still a lot of air when he sells them. The match built pretty well from there with the HFF to the outside over the guardrail being a memorable spot, but they missed a beat on that Rainmaker kick out. That should have been a much bigger moment. Why it wasn't part of the finishing stretch is beyond me? It didn't help that they cut to a long shot of Tanahashi's Rainmaker pose, then a crowd shot, before cutting back to the kick out sequence from a strange angle. As usual, the finishing stretch was the best part of the bout and I dug Tanahashi immobilising Okada with the dragon screw leg whips before the finish. The match didn't feel at all special and wasn't helped by JR going into full on hype mode. JR praising it as an all-time great match was always going to be unconvincing, but it was annoying nonetheless. I wasn't down with Okada crying either, but at least Tanahashi was a prick to him on the mic. I'm going *** 3/4 on this one with the 3/4 being a decent stretch run.

Just watched the Nakamura/Ibushi fight with the JR/Striker commentary. I thought JR did a pretty good job on what can't have been any easy call and Striker was all right as well, aside from a couple of lame catchphrases and a snarky swipe at critics of their work. They were a bit over the top with the level of star they made Nakamura out to be, but that sort of thing's to be expected. The match started out slow and the highflying stuff from Ibushi's not really my thing, but once it turned into a slug fest it was a heck of a spectacle and JR got right into it. Nakamura still doesn't seem like much to me outside of knee strikes and the odd submission, but his stretch runs are exciting and he's excellent at timing his Bomba Ye attempts. The finish was well booked and it turned into an excellent bout, but the elephant in the room was the constant head shots. As much as we complain about Tanahashi being light as a feather, Nakamura is the other extreme. A lot of it looks sickeningly good, but is it really that skillful? I don't really like the image it portrays especially when they're trying to shove it down our throats as real sport. Those feelings aside, the match was very good, though not something I can see Ibushi replicating too often particularly given his standard offence.

This is true of just about every promotion there's ever been, which leads me to believe that it's not a coincidence and that promoters learnt from experience it was better to stack the top of the card and fill out the rest. Wasn't the early 80s peak of New Japan the product of Inoki, Tiger Mask and Choshu-Fujinami all peaking at the same time? And a great Friday night TV spot... but Tiger Mask matches were third from the top so it was still top heavy.

During the first ten years of Dome Shows there were legit sell outs, but there was also some rumoured papering like Big Egg Universe.

This is true of just about every promotion there's ever been, which leads me to believe that it's not a coincidence and that promoters learnt from experience it was better to stack the top of the card and fill out the rest.

You're not getting a sellout out of a hardcore fan base. If 36k paid is true that's a good number, Nobody should have believed the 50k+ predictions just like they shouldn't believe that Akiyama ever drew that much.

It's similar to All Japan Women where every match on the interpromotional cards was four stars or better. I doubt anyone will believe New Japan had such stacked cards in twenty years time. Still, given what spudz25 said the other day about the extent to which Meltzer marks out while watching wrestling, I kind of dig big Dave getting caught up in the heat of the moment.

Johnny Saint vs. Jackie Robinson (Llandudno, taped 1982) Another solid working class bout. I thought Robinson might have gotten more more of a chance to shine, but he was really just along for the ride and the only memorable stuff he contributed were his signature spots. Saint was still Saint, and did plenty of escape holds, but it was more competitive than the usual wink and a grin. Mike Jordan vs. Jackie Robinson (Porthmadog, taped 1982) It figures that the one bout where Robinson looked really good would have half the footage missing. Robinson busted out a bunch of cool holds and finally looked like a lightweight of note. Johnny Saint vs. Jim Breaks (Unknown location, taped 1985) This was years after their primes and not worth watching compared to their 70s stuff, but still kind of fun to see the latter day rendition of their feud. Breaks looked like he could have still been a television regular in '85 and maybe even produced another classic like the Collins bout. The real downside to this was that it was criminally short. Chic Cullen vs. Dave Duran (Unknown location, taped 1985) Dave Duran is so great. I haven't had this much fun watching a jobber to the stars since Studs Lannigan. He had this really great look -- thick stocky guy, hair cut neat, prick-like moustache and a grubby wrestling style. Max Crabtree didn't know what to do with guys like this. He gave Cullen an absolute bruising and even bust out a legit looking choke submission. Awesome stuff. The front row was full of these mischievous looking kids so of course Duran took a bump into the crowd. Neat souvenir. Cullen looked awesome again.

Fuerza Guerrera vs. Misterioso, NWA World Welterweight Championship, CMLL 12/8/91 So let's recap: Misterioso was a modern style worker (great build, pretty athletic, not much in the way of wrestling ability) who was given a mask and a back story and pushed to the moon by Antonio Pena. As with other Pena creations, charismatic rudo Fuerza Guerrera was the go-to guy for a star making tilt. Just about everything in the lead up to the title match was good except for the Fuerza vs. Misterioso exchanges, which didn't instill a lot of confidence in their ability to work a traditional title match. It's doubtful that Pena cared as tradition was the domain of Juan Herrera. When it came to title matches, Pena creations "worked round the gimmick," a turn of phrase coined by our very own Gregor. Fuerza was more than obliging. Could he carry Misterioso through a mat exchange? Could he work the mat himself? It didn't really matter so long as it was entertaining. The only tradition Pena cared about was whatever he could use to make Misterioso more marketable, and in that sense he was clever enough to realise that title match victories still counted for something and that the NWA titles still carried some weight. Misterioso was so ahead of his time even his valet looked like she had implants. Pena was a creative guy whose unused ideas are probably better than half the gimmicks out there today, but the question mark vest plate? Was that the cherry on top? The finishing touch! You've got the brawn, I've got the brains. Let's make lots of... God bless Rangel for going through his pre-fight instructions. This definitely had a big fight feel even if you knew it was going to be smoke and mirrors. I had my eyes glued on Fuerza during the preamble. Watching him shake out the cobwebs and limber up was awesome, and he even went for a legitimate handshake. As expected they didn't stick to the mat for long. There's two ways of looking at that: one is that it's obviously pretty shitty in a lucha title match, the other is that if you can't really mat wrestle then it's probably better to go the story route. That's what they chose to do with a fired up Misterioso looking to expel his nervous energy and the champ looking to lay down a marker. Unfortunately, there were execution issues and Misterioso's nerves looked very real, but they got the first fall under their belts, the finish looked good on replay, and Misterioso continued his rich vein of form from the trios matches, proving to the crowd (at any rate) that he belonged there and that his falls over Fuerza had been no fluke. It was good booking even if the work itself was less than stellar. In between falls there was a cartoonist showing sketches he'd drawn, which reminded me of the 1992 Cricket World Cup. That won't mean much to most of you, but it was devastating for me at thye time as New Zealand lost in the semis. Fuerza was depicted as a mosquito, which had something to do with his nickname, El Mosco de la Merced. I've gotta say it was a pretty crappy sketch. Graham Crackers does a lot better work. Back in the ring, Fuerza gave the crowd a laugh when his second (one of the Espectros) got a little too close with the towel. The second fall was a total beat down. First Misterioso tried beating Fuerza down, then Fuerza beat Misterioso down. Fuerza fouled Misterioso and gave him a little shimmy kick while Rangel wasn't watching. Fouls in title matches; you all know how I feel about that. Fuerza claimed Misterioso did one in the first fall, which he didn't, then feigned innocence on his own indiscretion. It was the same old bull that you get with smoke and mirrors. On nice touch was that Misterioso crawled to the ropes instead of submitting in the scorpion deathlock, which at least signaled he wasn't going to lie down on a foul. Up until now the match had been flimsy as a two bob watch, but the third fall was where Fuerza took over. He guided Misterioso through a steady stream of missed moves, key transitions and dramatic nearfalls. Some of the spots were more benefiting of an apuesta match than a title bout, but it was beautifully paced and washed away any of the bad taste Fuerza had left with his knee to the nether regions. There wasn't really any Fuerza Moment of the Match aside from maybe the missed senton off the crane pose, but that's a spot he liked to do in most of his singles bouts and not a spontaneous moment of genius. Instead it was his selling that was sublime. The way he'd rest on the ropes after Misterioso came close on a pinfall or submission, panting and trying to gather his thoughts. The basic takedowns and transitions he used to fend Misterioso off while still selling the effects of his tope, and the huge gamble he took on a senton to the outside. This is the stuff Fuerza should be known for -- the sell on Misterioso's tope where he had to be lifted back to the ring by his second, and the kick he gave Misterioso after his own dive to the outside even though he was selling some damage to his hand. We didn't see a lot of this in the trios matches, but deep in the title bout were details not seen by even Casas or Emilio Charles Jr during this era. You have to watch it more than once, for example, to pick up on Fuerza biting Misterioso's finger to break up the camel clutch. Fuerza thought he'd won it on a single leg Boston, but Rangel waved it off and no amount of complaining to the commissioner (presumably) was going to overrule the referee's decision. Then, in what was a major upset at the time, he got screwed when his leg touched the rope during a backslide reversal and the ref counted three. Not the most emphatic way to crown a new champion, but a heck of a fall once Fuerza went into overdrive. Proof positive that so long as you finish stronger than you started you're all right. It felt like a colossal waste of Fuerza's talents to begin with and ended up as the best showcase possible, and while it may have snubbed tradition it also felt like a win for Pena and another of his creations. It was smoke and mirrors in terms of Misterioso truly being a good enough welterweight to carry the belt and to that effect the pinfall could have been more decisive, but perhaps it was booked that way to placate Guerrera. In any event, a match that will teach me to be less sarcastic, and a great Fuerza performance (eventually.)

Back to Wales for the best disc of wrestling I've watched in quite some time. Tony St Clair vs. Caswell Martin (Unknown location, taped 1982) St. Clair had filled out quite a bit at this point. It gave him a much more physical presence and made his stuff look better, IMO. He's definitely a guy I feel was missing from Dale Martin and World of Sport at this time. Reslo actually resembled WoS at this point, but something about the style was different. I can't quite put my finger on it, but feels less showy. If this were WoS, you'd expect to see more undressing of holds, but it's more of a straight up bout. It never really kicked into high gear, but any opportunity to see a decent length Martin bout is appreciated. Keith Martinelli vs. Chic Cullen (Aberystwyth, taped 1983) Chic Cullen was the man in Reslo. Of all the guys I've seen work Reslo so far, he's the one who's benefited from working a different territory. He's back in my good graces big time after this Martinelli bout. Martinelli was a veteran middleweight from Bolton whose real name was Keith Williams. I'm guessing he went by "Martinelli" due to Mike Marino and other Italians of dodgy descent. Regardless of how he came about the name, he was allegedly one of the hardest men in professional wrestling and a real nightmare to face. His nickname was "blood boots" and he loved a good scrap apparently. All of that makes him badass, and this was indeed a great journeyman bout. I've seen a couple of his bouts against Johnny Saint and Steve Wright, but I think I liked this more. Early 80s Reslo's the shit. Jon Cortez vs. Keith Haward (Caernarfon, taped 1987) This was really short, but more of the grappling that only these two are capable of. There was a strange lull before the finish, but other than that it was almost RINGS like at times. Kung Fu vs. Jon Cortez (Porthmadog, taped 1987) Several notches down from the Haward bout, but it's almost unfair comparing the two. Cortez looked almost unrecognisable in the Haward fight. I think he'd put on weight, particularly in the face. Maybe you can tell this bout wasn't very interesting. Reslo appears to have suffered the same malaise as the rest of the UK, but booking this kind of stuff in '87 really didn't help. A guy who was a part timer at best against a washed up Kung Fu isn't the greatest look. Jackie Robinson vs. Carl Jason (Anglesey, taped 1982) The elusive Jackie Robinson! Jackie Robinson was the younger cousin of Billy and a lightweight of some repute, but the footage we have of him is usually clipped or compromised in some other way. Reslo probably provides the best look at him. I was actually more taken with his opponent here. Jason was one of those long time pros who'd worked the indies and never gotten in with Dale Martin and the TV, and while this appeared to be a Jackie Robinson showcase, Jason took the bull by the horns and had himself a memorable outing. Neat to see someone get their shit in during a showcase bout. Rollerball Rocco vs. Chic Cullen (Llandudno, taped 1982) This was a typical post-70s Rocco performance. It didn't need to be a typical post-70s Rocco performance because it was a bout with Frank "Chic" Cullen, but the Rocco persona was a bit of a monster at this stage. Not that it was bad or anything, but I'm more interested in watching Cullen take centre stage in this territory.

Watching films from the Sight and Sound list is about as hip as listening to records from The Rolling Stone 500. That little dig aside, either way you miss out. There's a ton of contemporary stuff I might have enjoyed if I'd been paying attention, but the past keeps me fully occupied. Some styles are simply dead, though. Shoot style is dead. Trios wrestling is dead in my opinion. Apuesta matches are dead, at least the old school variety. World of Sport died a long time ago. It's easier to jump off the bandwagon when it leaves you behind.

Delta, Fuego y Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre y Virus, CMLL 11/11/14 A good trios match is hard to find these days. I don't know if you can expect anything great from a trios match anymore. They're almost like a dead art form. I'd take something with a little rhythm, but even that's a challenge these days. This was praised for its matwork, but honestly the Virus/Maya exchanges weren't on the level of Virus' title match work this year. I won't complain about Virus getting extra minutes on the mat, but a little sobriety is needed before dishing out the praise. You could tell it wasn't that great when they signaled for the stalemate and the atmosphere was less than electric. Hechicero and Delta worked harder at breaking through each other's defences and their exchange ended on a more competitive note than Virus'. It wasn't the prettiest of exchanges, but better than the Virus section. Some of that was on Maya, who was disappointing in this despite being given the chance to shine, but it wasn't top drawer Virus either. Hechicero's not in Virus' league as a mat worker, but he uses his height to great effect and this time round I actually saw a lot of similarities between Fiera and him. Hombre sin Nombre was goofy to say the least. He reminded me of that odd period when Virus was still Damiancito El Guerrero and had just graduated to wrestling normal sized people. Virus was a waif at the time with a similar sort of get-up. He wasn't too bad I guess; Hombre, that is. I've seen worse even in the boom times. Virus injecting himself while Fuego gyrated was a nice touch, but I was perplexed when it didn't signal the finish. I'm so used to synchronized finishes where they all rush in and eat a pin fall or submission that it didn't occur to me the match would continue. A lot of people hate those finishes in lucha; I suppose they've become a comfort to me. The matches lack something in rhythm without them and come across as far less polished. Hechicero took the fall with a nasty looking submission, but it seemed disconnected from the rest of the match. The rudos didn't even set a screen to prevent the tecnicos from interfering. It was as though there was a basic lack of teamwork; the very backbone of trios wrestling. The second fall began with some sharp looking legwork from Virus that didn't really go anywhere before Maya and Hechicero had a spirited exchange. Mechanically it wasn't that great, but again the purpose and intent were clear, and some of Hechicero's takedowns have a shoot like quality to them that you don't see too often in lucha. In another sign that trios wrestling is dead, they tried mixing things up for the finish with one pin canceling out the other, but it was like trying to light a fire with wet matches. The tercera began like a weak primera caida, and ironically when they started working together as tandem like I asked for it was an uncoordinated mess. Virus' work with Delta was fluid, but the rest of the exchanges were unspectacular. They front loaded this match with a long primera caida and a flashy finishing sequence in the second fall, and couldn't do anything to top it in the third fall. That's just limp wrestling. At least the mano a mano showdown between Hechicero and Maya had some bite. Of course it wasn't built to in any sort of meaningful way, but at least you came out of the contest thinking that a singles match between the two would be a decent power contest. Hechicero was the best worker in the match by a country mile, but couldn't right the ship structurally. All of this raises the question of who, or what, killed trios wrestling. On one hand, the workers tried to step outside the box and move away from the generic CMLL style trios work that's plagued Arena Mexico for much of this decade. On the other hand, they stumbled. I've always maintained that you don't need that many cooks to have a great trios match. Just an Atlantis/Lizmark/Solar/Santo type tecnico on one side and at least two great rudos on the other. It would have helped matters considerably if Maya could be that ring general, but he's unfortunately not that talented. That puts the onus on rudos like Hechicero, Virus, Arkangel de la Muerte, and others, to really carry these matches, and I don't think we saw that here. Trim a bit of the fat, put the more spectacular stuff towards the end, make it all about Hechicero vs. Maya, and it would have been much better. The effort wasn't there this year, perhaps synonymous with the downturn in business. When the two most pimped trios matches of the year disappoint that should signal troubling times for lucha fans. Trios are the lifeblood of lucha libre and need to be better than this. Perhaps the lack of great trios wrestling was offset by how much people enjoyed the short one fall matches, but with the old school apuesta match going the way of the dodo, I'd hate to see another tradition lost.

I don't watch new movies or listen to new music, and I pretty much have my head buried in the past when it comes to wrestling too, but I will say it's easier to cherry pick the past than it is to wait for something good to happen. Picking and choosing what you watch can make pretty much anything seem better than it was. Pretty much the worst year I ever had watching wrestling was 1995 and I'm sure I could find matches from that era I think are better than today's stuff, but does that really mean '95 was better? Ease of access also makes things less coveted and therefore less special. Typing into a search engine's not quite the same as reading about all these great matches that only traders had. The standard answer is that wrestling was better when guys came up through the territories, when there were a number of vibrant promotions and legendary trainers breaking guys into the business, and when the crowds were different, the stadiums older and the production values lower, but I think it's actually harder to appreciate matches as they happen as opposed to a decade later. Once people start looking back on this era and doing "best of the 10s" and what not, people will formulate the classics, the hidden gems, and so on. I know a lot of people do that already with ongoing MOTY lists, etc., but if 2014 is given the distance that say 1999 was given with the Yearbook, I expect some fresh ideas about it in the future, especially once you remove people's feelings about the booking and the backstage politics.

Here were last year's: I have a few more discs left on the Lucha History Lessons. It ended up being awfully time consuming for something that didn't have a lot of interest. I did learn a lot, however. I'm in the home stretch with WoS, though that guy has started uploading random stuff I didn't order so it might take me longer than expected. The rest of my resolutions didn't happen. I couldn't keep up to date with the modern stuff, a couple of great channels popped up for lucha, and the time I said I'd spend watching something regularly went to other hobbies. This year, I just want to finish the history lessons, finish watching British wrestling and update my blog more regularly. I'm not participating in any polls so I've eliminated any sort of pressure to watch stuff.

He was hard, but I don't think he was legit. He just liked to do crazy shit like the pig story -- http://ichlugebullets.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/its-les-kellett-140am-on-a-friday-night-on-ichlugebullets/