ohtani's jacket

King Ben vs. Ray Robinson (6/28/84) This was the most regulation bout ever. There's not much you can say about it really. It just... happened. Skull Murphy vs. Ray Robinson (10/9/84) This bout on the other hand... This was the quarterfinals of the 1984 Grand Prix Belt tournament. Murphy could have easily treated this as a walkover given how unlikely it was that Robinson would beat him, but instead he put on the best quarterfinal I've seen from one of these television tournaments. Ray Robinson was a hard nosed type; a former amateur boxer who was a throwback to the less flamboyant wrestlers of the past. He'd made his debut in 1970, but didn't wrestle on television until 1982. Murphy put him over beautifully here. He was at his galling best, and the crowd got right behind a fired up Robinson. I think I questioned why Murphy won the 1984 Grand Prix, but he deserved it for filling the void left by heels like Breaks and Rocco. Chic Cullen vs. Sid Cooper (9/11/84) One guy who kept plowing away in '84 was Cooper. It's fair to say he was past his prime at this point, but still handy. There was a relatively short match from a Scotland vs. England episode, but Cullen continued to look good and didn't take any shit from Cooper whatsoever. It's natural to favour the heels in WoS, but as far as blue eyes you can root for go, Cullen was one of the elite few. Ray Steele vs. Skull Murphy (8/21/84) Murphy's at it again! Just when I thought I'd seen enough Ray Steele to last a lifetime here's a cracking bout with a fired up Steele trying to get a piece of wrestling's most hated man. Another feather in Murphy's cap. (Note to John -- this has the wrong taping date on the ITV website.) John Elijah vs. Lenny Hurst (10/11/83) One fall contest between two of my favourite unheralded guys that ended with the shittiest of injury finishes. They actually booked a finish where Hurst got injured from a gorilla press. Even Walton could barely muster his enthusiasm. Afterwards Elijah carried Hurst to the back, which was a bit weird. It kind of looked like Tarzan carrying Jane over the threshold. Hurst sadly died recently and I actually had no idea that he so traveled. I believe he worked in North America during the mid 70s. Pete Roberts vs. Skull Murphy (3/5/84) This was the rematch from the great bout I talked about in my last post. I was about as amped for this as you can possibly get for a World of Sport bout. Twenty minute time limit, no rounds, two falls to decide the winner, and the match in full, but despite all the promise it was a stalemate for the most part. There were a lot of holds that threatened to erupt into something nastier, but the ref was a bit over zealous. Even Walton seemed off his game here. Murphy took a one fall lead with only minutes remaining. You'd expect Walton to ram home the strife Roberts was in, but he called it as though it was the second round. Roberts was able to equalise, but the match fizzled out like a dead sparkler as time expired. A cruel disappointment, but it doesn't lessen the cracking unruliness of the first bout. Steve Logan vs. Rocky Moran (6/13/84) Slightly better than Moran's disappointing work in tags, but devoid of the personality and heel work that made him so exciting against Cullen and Kilby. Not sure where that Moran went to. John Naylor vs. Rick Wiseman (8/8/84) This was my first look at Wiseman, but the poor VQ, match length, and general mediocrity of Naylor made him impossible to gauge.

When is US matwork ever cool?

A lot of guardrail irish whips. Going through the 2014 G-1, I started a counter and almost every match had at least 1. This happens in all those 90s All Japan matches.

I hope she remembers to say: "Goodnight Blue Panther! Goodnight El Hijo del Santo!"

Vic Faulkner vs. Sid Cooper (4/26/84) This was the final of a knockout tournament for... the Golden Gown 1984... I'm not making this up, they were fighting for a boxing robe. Walton actually had the nerve to comment on how badly Faulkner wanted the gown. Even more amusingly, Joint did their usual trick of not deciding a winner. This might have been a good match in the 70s, but both men were a bit long in the tooth by '84. Every time there was a close-up on Faulkner you got a good look at how old he'd become. At least they aged naturally in British wrestling. I'm fairly certain that '84 was Vic Faulkner's last year on television and possibly the year he retired as he began working for Thwaites Brewery that year and went on to have a successful post-wrestling career. Faulkner was still popular with crowds so this had good heat, but his tricks were a bit outdated. Actually, "crowd" might be generous as there were more empty seats in this bout than I can remember seeing in a WoS bout. They worked an injury story line mid-match, but Faulkner blew it off down the stretch. Vic Faulkner vs. Sid Cooper (6/13/84) One of the most pointless replays I've seen from Joint. Cooper wound up getting himself DQ'ed and the Golden Gown was awarded to Faulkner in anticlimactic fashion. Why didn't they just have Faulkner win the April bout? Why did they overuse the replay system? If I were a punter and there was a tournament final billed, I'd save my hard earned for the next time they were in town. Anyway, Faulkner got the gown he so badly wanted, and there were people in the crowd to boot. Vic Faulkner vs. Kid Chocolate (4/26/84) Just the finish. Vic Faulkner vs. Dave Finlay (10/9/84) This was better than it had a right to be. Faulkner took a swing at Paula early on and later tried to surprise Finlay with a quick dropkick and hit Paula instead. In the confusion, Finlay charged at Faulkner and Vic scored a surprise pinfall. Paula was furious and Finlay a bit stunned. Walton mentioned that Finlay was angry at the ref while Faulkner just stood there with that shit eating grin on his face. Even Walton remarked: "he's quite happy. He's quite happy." Finlay unloaded on Faulkner after that and the remaining few minutes were heated, but as with much of this '84 footage, we only saw a sliver of what was actually a seven round fight.

Watching the press conference his answer about the no-compete clause was so phony.

I don't really believe that they did 100k on those events, but even if they did it's a drop in the bucket compared to the WWE's finances. We're only talking about US $250,000. If they can get a 100k buys on an IPPV they should be able to get enough subscribers to compensate for that in the long run. It's simply a matter of whether customers are willing to pay monthly instead of a one off purchase. IPPV doesn't seem particularly stable and their other platforms are useless. The way NJPW is broadcast is so fragmented that it makes sense to cut out the providers if they possibly can, but I don't really see how the site is as ambitious as the network.

This is a good intro -- http://www.1wrestlinglegends.com/column/lucha-00.html

Kurt used to talk about it a lot on podcasts. See if you can find the old Luchaworld ones he did.

What are the alternatives for New Japan? There's no TV rights deals, no huge PPV numbers. If you're New Japan you should at least try to get people to pay for this stuff instead of watching it for free on streaming sites.

Didn't he spend a couple of hours complaining about how injured he was? Now he wants to go and get further injured?

Didn't Talisman vs. Atlantis have the same finish as the Atlantis/Mano Negra bout? If people think the Ultimo Guerrero match had a poor finish they ain't seen nothing when it comes to Atlantis finishes. I have a hard time believing that any service like this would satisfy a hardcore fan. A mate of mine let me take a look at his online Marvel account and I gave up after a few minutes. There's no way these sort of things compare to what's been uploaded by fans. It would be beyond words to have the Televisa vaults opened, but only if the tapes were in the hands of people who knew what to do with them, which really has only ever happened somewhat haphazardly with Japanese Classics shows and WoS on TWC.

The next disc is full of 1984 World of Sport. Bully Boy Muir vs. Dave Bond (8/8/84) Only a few minutes survive. Muir gets himself disqualified as usual. Match didn't look good. Clive Myers vs. Pat Patton (8/8/84) Another disappointing Myers fight. Obviously he's not going to get the same heat going with Patton that villains Johnny England and Bobby Barnes managed, but this was another missed opportunity for him to do something special with someone other than Steve Grey. I blame the gimmick at this stage. There's not enough wrestling in his 80s bouts. Too much of his kung fu shtick comes across as sparring, and when you've got two workers doing martial arts gimmicks they almost cancel each other out. Take it to the mat, Clive! You were the coolest motherfucker out in the 70s and you traded it in for a pair of pajamas. It really is a travesty in a way. Lenny Hurst vs. Mohammed Butt (7/11/84) Mohammed Butt was a Pakistani weightlifter. Big dude. Didn't look like he was very experienced as Hurst sort of just sparred with him instead of having a proper match. He had a hard time getting back to his feet every time he touched the mat because of his bulk. Wrestlers often talk about how much it hurts working against inexperienced guys like Butt and I imagine that was the proposition Hurst faced here. Dave Finlay vs. Mick McMichael (7/25/84) This was the era where Finlay was starting to come to the ring with Princess Paula, which was a bit like coming to the ring with Sensational Sherri if you're looking for a comparison. He got a lot of wins during this era and was one of the more pushed characters on television. I don't personally care for it compared to his early years on television, but it really cemented him as one of the biggest names in the business. McMichael was a bona fide veteran at this stage, so he was treated with a bit more respected than some of Finlay's other roadkill. This had a ridiculous finish where the ref overturned Finlay's submission victory and ordered the bout to continue. Instead of teasing McMichael winning, Finlay merely applied the hold again and it was over. Not sure what the point of that was. Barry Douglas vs. Mohammed Butt (2/2/84) Butt's television debut. Pretty nondescript draw. It didn't look like Butt had received much training. Jim Breaks vs. Eddie Riley (2/2/84) Fun Breaks bout. It was a tournament bout so there was little chance of it being a Breaks classic, but Riley showed the right sort of attitude and got up in Breaks' grill. Breaks made him suffer for it, mind you. Skull Murphy vs. Pete Roberts (1/25/84) This was awesome. Roberts was wrestling in his home town of Worcester and the crowd were behind him like I've never seen a crowd behind Pete Roberts. The camera kept cutting to folks hanging on Roberts' every move. There were people standing with fists clenched fist pumping his every hold. Murphy didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary to be vilified. The more Murphy you watch, the more you realise that people naturally despised his underhandedness. It's hard for me to believe that he's a guy I completely wrote off and only gave a second chance as dregs when I now see him as an integral part of the 80s and possibly a top ten worker for the decade. This had one of the best DQ finishes I've seen in wrestling. Murphy started pointing the finger at Roberts after forcing him to submit in the gator and Roberts took exception to it. The match erupted into an out of control brawl with Jeff Kaye having to pull Roberts off Murphy. The crowd were standing the women naturally urging Roberts to sock Murphy one and the men standing arms crossed trying to make out what the ref's decision was. Crabtree entered the ring to announce the result and was tossed aside by Murphy, and the post match jawing and posturing was as good as it gets in this type of situation. Roberts looked legitimately pissed for a guy who always had the charisma of a pet rock. Really well done. That Murphy. What a shit stirrer.

Toyota hadn't really come into her own yet, but this was easily her best match since the '89 bout against Yamada. I was impressed that they were able to adhere so closely to the narrative here as it's in everyone's instinct to blow it off for the stretch run, but they were committed to the story here. I'm also not crazy over pre-existing injury matches, but I thought this was extremely well done, similar to something like Liger vs. Sano and the first legitimate four star Toyota match of the 90s. I don't agree that this was a better Toyota than the one she matured into, though. She was more Mima Shimoda than Manami Toyota here, and while it was a cool story, she couldn't have made a career out of it.

Some of the action in this was good, but the storyline of Kyoko and Toyota not getting along was stupid. Why would anybody care that Kyoko and Toyota don't get along? That's a story that would mean something if it were say Hokuto and Toyota in the 1993 TLTB, but not at this stage of their careers. It came across as stroppy and was a distraction from the match. The first fall was one of the most ridiculous pinfall decisions ever and Kyoko's harlequin look was naff.

Toyota didn't stand a chance here. It was as though her reward for winning the Japan Grand Prix was a firm reality check. it was interesting that they went for a realistic approach here instead of Bull putting over Toyota's challenge, but I guess they were still building Bull up as a monster. This period was a transition for everyone. In retrospect it's amazing that Toyota developed so quickly. She has real difficulty with sunset flip moves in 1990, but you wouldn't know it in 1991. She was also terribly shy in her pre-match promo. Bull was a bit forced and awkward as well.

I don't think Hokuto blew off her injury here. She was still favouring her knee in the stretch run, struggling to get back to her feet, and staggering about. It may not have been in proportion to the amount she sold while she was in Toyota's holds, but she was still selling the injury after the bout was over. They needed to get their shit in because there were only five minutes left. If submissions were more common in Joshi they could have worked toward one, but since they're not they had to go for falls. Considering most submission wrestling in Joshi is either time wasting or one wrestler rubbing it in another's face that they have dominant position, I thought the matwork was better than usual. The holds were nasty and Toyota was stretched even more than in previous matches where her flexibility has been noted. It's just that Joshi is a style where they struggle to transition from the mat to standing exchanges or running between the ropes, so it feels like there are distinct parts to the match -- the mat section, the outside the ring section, the submission section, the finishing stretch, etc. -- without Matt D's infamous connecting tissue. But it was an excellent effort for workers their age and better than the Hotta match. Toyota's style closely resembled her trainer Jaguar Yokota, which is not surprising given her level of experience. I often get the impression that people cultivate a "ditzy" image of her as someone who forgets to sell things, but it seems to me that the change in her wrestling style was calculated, deliberate and effective. The Toyota you see here would have ended up as Suzuka Minami with slightly more histrionics if she hadn't developed her action at all costs style. I see her as a worker who created her own stardom, and as a work in progress this gets a big tick.

I don't know if offend is the right word, but I'd stop watching any promotion if the product didn't interest me. The only time I've been loyal to a promotion was during the Monday Night Wars. It's not like sports where I'm loyal to a particular team. It's more like comic books where if a creative run ends I'll drop the book and find something else.

Okay, I thought you were confusing him with the commentator you use for the intro. The guy in the pic is Akira Fukuzawa.

It was fun seeing the kind of transitions/counters Toyota did before refining her act, but to echo the sentiments of others, this was no MOTYC. There were a lot of holes in the stretch run, not the least of which was the ref telling Hotta her shoulder wasn't down on the Japanese Ocean Suplex, but I won't hold it against them since they were still kids. Hell, Toyota was only 19. The start was definitely better than the finish and Toyota's dive at the beginning was probably the highlight.

Wrong commentator!

Staying in Wales for a bit: Caswell Martin vs. Max Regan (Unknown location, taped 1984) This was scarcely more than an exhibition match for Martin. I can't find a single bit of information about Regan, in fact I'm not even sure if that's his proper name as the Welsh commentator sounded like he was saying 'Reger,' but you know you're enhancement talent when you're knocked out by a dropkick. Wayne Bridges vs. John Kowalski (Unknown location, taped 1983) The champ arrives. For some reason, Bridges was doing his heel act here. The same one he did in that three match series against Pete Roberts. Kowalski scored a legitimate pinfall from a backslide and went to shake the champ's hand, and Bridges whipped him pillar to post and attacked him while he was down. There's your champion right there. It was better than the usual generic Bridges match, I guess. The highlight was Kowalski's beer belly sharecropper comeback. Jim Moser vs. Steve McHoy (Unknown location, taped 1983) This didn't reach any great heights as Moser was a modest worker who didn't crave the limelight with his matches, but it was another chance for McHoy to show his wares. I've been impressed with McHoy thus far. Watching him you know he doesn't stand a chance with the business turning to shit, but he was part of a group of young heavyweight talent who could have been the next generation of St. Clair's and Veidor's if times hadn't changed. The talent was there but not the stage. Interestingly, it seems to me that there were much better heavyweight prospects in wrestling at this time than lightweights. That may be my bias against the "boy apprentices," or the fact that a Steve McHoy was closer to being a Tony St. Clair than anybody ever could to being a Steve Grey or a Jim Breaks, but guys like Steve McHoy and Tom Tyrone were solid newcomers in this era. Johnny Saint vs. Chic Cullen (Unknown location, taped 1983) Now this was a good match. Some of you may remember that I was really into Cullen until a string of disappointing matches. Where had all the good matches gone? Turns out they were in Reslo. Not surprisingly, this is closer to the beginning of the 80s and Cullen's debut than the period from '85 to '86 where things began to stagnate. It's the same pattern as Alan Kilby or King Ben where the earlier the match the more likely it is to be good. This was also an example of the "good" Johnny Saint, again not surprisingly given it's catchweight. He really is a thousand times better when his holds are legit and not simply for show. Cullen looked fantastic here and this reminded me of old times in terms of my viewing. Rollerball Rocco vs. Tony St Clair (Caernarfon, taped 1982) This was the first Reslo match that had the kind of heat you'd see in an English hall. There were all manner of people getting upset from grown men to their mothers and the local school kids, and in the thick of it all was Rollerball. He really had a knack for getting under people's skin. There wasn't much to this -- Rocco stomped a hole in St. Clair, Tony used his size and reach to send Rocco flying about, and the pair of them ended up on the outside a half a dozen times -- but these two always had good chemistry together and Rocco had 'em eating out of his palm. Chic Cullen vs. Keith Haward (Caernarfon, taped 1982) This was awesome to watch. Cullen and Haward dueling with each other on the mat? Yes, thank you. The only thing that really stopped this from being a recommended bout was how neatly cropped it felt for Reslo's television hour. Still, this was a treat. It wasn't as slick as the Saint bout, but again it was brilliant seeing Cullen in a contest.

This was a workrate driven tag as you'd expect with Toyota vs. Fukuoka being the main match-up. Toyota worked heel, but she did this annoying shtick where she'd no sell Fukuoka's throws then overpower her with the same moves. I hate that sort of heel work. She'd do a similar thing in matches where she'd lie in a submission hold and act like it wasn't hurting. To me that's infinitely more annoying than her running around on a bad leg. The dives were a mess in this in terms of their orchestration, but the two moves that put Toyota away were fantastic looking. I liked Ito in this despite the fact I didn't think it was right for her to be playing the kid sister act after the breakout year she had in '97, but ultimately it wasn't a very good performance from Toyota and it needed to be for the match to be special.

I'm not sure how only being on the two biggest smartphone platforms is an issue here? They website only lists a handful of phones that it's incompatible with for some reason, which happens with all sorts of Android apps for a number of reasons. Also, Android phone apps are built to scale to Android tablets. Actually, I checked again and it's mostly basic phones that aren't supported, though for some reason it isn't very compatible with LG phones.

In fairness to Dave, I don't think he actually said there was a bunch of stuff that had never been seen. He said there was a Choshu/Takano vs. Tenryu/Misawa match that had never been shown on TV. Then he listed a bunch of random stuff he'd found, but I don't think he's implying that Super J Cup or Skydiving J are new. Regarding Japanese mobiles, at present it's only available on Android or iPhone. There's a long list on the website of smartphones that it can't be streamed on. It seems the only tablet it's available for is iPad. That should give you an idea of how far behind Japan is when it comes to these type of services. They're still in their infancy here.