ohtani's jacket

This was much feistier than These Days. Everything they did had an extra edge to it, and I thought leading with forearm strikes instead of irish whips was brilliant. I agree with Zenjo that it's less seminal, but the finishing stretch was flat out great and ranks alongside any multi-man tag finish I can recall. The crowd was amazing as well. That ovation at the end was outstanding. Great match.

Fujiwara was the carniest motherfucker of all-time and would regularly make jokes during shoot style bouts.

Time to polish off 1981: Rollerball Rocco vs. Joel De Fremery (8/26/81) Sound issues made this difficult to follow, but perhaps the least remarkable World Title bout from any promotion in the 80s. The French worker De Fremery didn't show me anything and Rocco didn't even put on the "Rocco Show." Joint Promotions would often bring over a guy from a continent for vacant World Title bouts, presumably to add some legitimacy to their global pretensions, but this would have been so much better if the top two heavy-middleweights had met. Mick McMichael vs. Steve Peacock (2/2/81) Peacock looked good here. Not Jim Breaks good or anything, but Johnny England good. I wouldn't mind seeing a long six rounder if he has one, but he's a guy who slipped through The Wrestling Channel cracks. McMichael remains an enigma. So many matches, so many years on television, and no connection at all. Tom Tyrone vs. Peter Stewart (2/24/81) This had funky sound issues that sounded like a Pink Floyd recording at first but soon got on my nerves. So I put on a New Wave of British Heavy Metal record to accompany this; one of my more recent booms inspired by Regal's appearance on Austin's podcast, Triple H's entrance at Wrestlemania 22, and a German guy I met outside an alcohol vending machine. I figure a lot of the wrestlers were into this shit at the time, so why not? Tyrone was young and babyfaced, but put up a decent fight against the Iron Duke. Stewart cleaned his clock in the end, but Tyrone moved another rung up the hierarchy. Peter Stewart vs. Johnny South (12/30/80) I may be the only person on the planet who gets excited over Peter Stewart vs. Johnny South. This was an adrenaline kick. Most people's idea of World of Sport is Johnny Saint rolling himself into a ball or some shit, but this is my kind of fix. Stewart had South in the Japanese stranglehold and you could see South had a mouthful of blood. Later on it seemed like South gave him a receipt but all in the spirit of tough as guts professional wrestling. These guys could have easily been card carrying members in the Rudge/Singh/Roach/Steele club. The finish was great as Stewart knocked South the fuck out while selling as though he'd fractured his forearm. Bad ass. Le Grand Vladimir vs. John Cox (12/30/80) The Burnley crowd were well up for this and gave Cox probably the most support he ever received. Naturally, he was the sacrificial lamb, but not before a decent clubbing at the hands of Vladimir. Walton made a right hash out of explaining Vladimir's background: Russian but born to French and Polish parents and residing most of his life in Paris. In the end he fobbed him off as Prussian and span some bullshit about how he'd won countless German tournaments. Vladimir was never a great worker, but he knew how to get heat and could have had a better run in the UK if the money had been better. Instead, they brought him in for the World Heavyweight Title Eliminator series they ran at the Royal Albert Hall, which was this sort of gauntlet thing that Wayne Bridges was involved in on the monthly shows and jobbed him to Daddy on TV. Wayne Bridges vs. Lee Bronson (4/29/81) I was ready to spit venom at this when Bronson dropped the first fall in the opening round, but it turned into a pretty decent bout. For once we got to see Bridges show some of his technical ability instead of working whatever lump they put in front of him. I'm still not convinced he had the prowess of the heavyweights who were always in and out of the country and off TV for months at a time, but this was better than the usual Bridges fare. Somewhat on the short side, but I managed to get my teeth sunk in. I can kind of understand why they stopped pushing Bronson as the new young hope with that hair loss. King Kong Kirk vs. Tom Tyrone (6/24/81) This went longer than it needed to, but Kirk gave Tyrone plenty of the bout while still using him to set up a bout with the visiting Rick Hunter, who I believe was splitting his time between the AWA and the Pacific Northwest at the time (Joint billed him as being from Portland.) The grotesque nature of Kirk continues to captivate me. He had this blotch on the side of his head that I couldn't decide was a birth mark, a patch of hair or a birth mark with something growing out of it. And he had this shit on his face that was either parts he hadn't shaved or pieces of toilet paper. Fucking weird.

One thing I forgot to mention about Marino is that when he gets on the mic it totally kills the Italian immigrant gimmick he had. Alan Kilby vs. King Ben (8/7/86) This looked much better than their June bout but was clipped to shit for television broadcast. Alan Kilby vs. Barry Douglas (2/27/85) Just the final two rounds. The action was decent if unspectacular. There weren't any standout performances from this last bit of Alan Kilby, which is disappointing, but like a lot of guys he went all right in the early 80s when Joint was still good then laboured in the waning years as it crapped out. Even so, his performances in these matches really wasn't anything special and I may have to concede that he has a smaller number of good matches than thought and perhaps not a premier worker.

I'm pretty sure Michaels has had as many well regarded matches in the WWF as Davey Boy and Owen. Shawn Michaels fans can breath easy there.

Okay. I get it.

It's really not a matter of caring for Brody himself. It's a matter of "Do I want to actively seek out matches from a guy who most probably murdered a guy and get enjoyment out of his work ?" My personnal answer is no. Like I said, it's a case by case matter, as I know of (and understand) people who can't watch a Benoit match anymore, while I've been able to (in a broader context, again). Now if you're talking about caring about the victim, indeed I have no emotional link to Brody at all while I was a fan of Woman. Plus, I am very sensitive to the issue of violence against women, so in all logic I should have had more issues watching Benoit. Like I said, my own personal question here is "Do I want to willingly search for some new entertainment from a guy who killed ?". The key points are *willingly* and *new* to me. At this point, I'd rather not. I respect what you're saying, but by airing your thoughts aren't you implying that the rest of us should agree with you and feel guilty for enjoying Invader bouts?

When you're watching two guys pretend to have a fight it's not hard to watch it in a detached way where you only care about the performance and not what happened in real life. I never watch an Invader match and think "wow, I'm looking at the face of a killer. " If I really think about it, I view most murder cases in the same detached way. It's simply a matter of switching off. What I find a little strange is that people don't give two shits about Brody until his killer is brought up. Suddenly caring about him as a human being because if the way he died is understandable I suppose, but people sure as he'll don't have a lot of sympathy for him otherwise.

Mike Marino vs. Alan Kilby (2/11/81) Marino was apparently 58 when he died, but he looked like he was in his 60s here. He was wearing a blue t-shirt underneath an amateur singlet, I suppose because he was conscious of his upper body. McManus did a similar thing in his final years. On the other hand, he had leukemia at the time so who knows what he was going through. Despite his ill health and advancing age, he was still an impressive mat wrestler, which meant the competitive part of this was good; but it was sullied by an injury finish that saw Kilby lose despite being up a fall. The point of the finish was for Marino to get on the mic and offer Kilby a rematch (and shot at his title); yet another shitty finish to a career full of them due to how protected he was. The rematch never eventuated due to an injury to Marino and he died in August, so this marks his final television appearance.

You should move that to the PR thread for posterity.

This was another fun match. It didn't have the charm of the These Days match but the elimination rules imposed a bit more structure to the bout. Having said that, Kaientai will never be confused with being the Infernales when it comes to double teaming spots and the eliminations weren't as spectacular as they might have been. A point of comparison might be the CMLL ciberneticos from the following year and there is no comparison really. I did like Naniwa's stand at the end though. He was the perfect guy to go it alone against the remaining heels.

That Invader/Hercules Ayala studio match was such a blast. Invader is a legit awesome brawler, but I loved the shots Ayala was laying in. Totally underrated big man. WWC had the most pimping commissioner. This thread is the ticket for an awesome match of the day.

ANTI-CENA CROWDS Cena vs Triple H - Wrestlemania 22 Let's see, Money in the Bank is a classic and one of the greatest WWE matches of all-time, I never want to see another Edge/Cena match so long as I live, and I can do without seeing a Rob Van Dam match. I think I'm getting to the point where my interest in Cena depends on who his opponent is, and that's a big determiner in how I rate a worker. So Triple H it is. His entrance is sublime. How wonderfully self-indulgent. Cena comes across as a dipshit by comparison. I liked the early work in this. I don't have much of a problem with Triple H's work; it's basic stuff but inoffensive. It's the finishing stretches where things get cliched. The ref bump, the weapon shot, the kicking out of the FU and taking an age to tap to the STFU. It was like he was having a running battle with JR over who could roll out the more tired, cliched shtick. I think Ross won with the football talk. Cena didn't really own this match, which is a reoccurring theme for me. But it wasn't bad. About *** 1/4

Quasimodo in a German tournament is a baaad idea. I can't imagine him doing the same shtick in the same tent for nights on end.

Dave Finlay/Rocky Moran vs. Owen/Ross Hart (aired 3/31/84) For some reason watching an 18 year old Owen Hart is stranger to me than seeing a teenage Davey Boy or Dynamite Kid. Walton kept calling the Harts the "Ross" family. Moran seemed so timid in this. He did a decent job of carrying young Owen "Ross," albeit with some rather unsubtle whispering in the ear on each posting, but where was the great heel that shone so brightly against Chic Cullen? Finlay was nothing special in this and the bout suffered as a result. Fit Finlay/Rocky Moran vs. Clive Myers/Kung Fu (11/4/87) It's setting the bar pretty low, but this wasn't a bad bout for 1987. Finlay was in full on mullet mode, which meant his antics were over the top and he was more interested in heat than he was in grappling, but he was one of the biggest stars on the circuit at this point and it came through loud and clear in the crowd response. Myers and Kung Fu were past their best but could still provide crowd pleasing spots, and it went the entire 20 minutes with no cuts. Moran was again invisible in terms of presence. His pairing with Finlay has been uber disappointing. This was a bout for All-Star so the camera work was a bit more funky and they had a ring announcer that was the British version of Mike Mcguirk. Worth watching if you're a completist.

There's wrestlers and then there's wrestlers' wrestlers, and Colin Joynson was a wrestler's wrestler. A powerful, powerful man. Steve Regal recommended this match recently on twitter, so I will too: Bob Kirkwood, could have been your gym teacher but another pro's pro. Watch him carry young prospect John Carlo to a thoroughly decent match:

Here's a wrestler known to most of you, Chris Adams, against a man who needs no introduction, Dave "Fit" Finlay, back in his hoodlum days before he hooked up with Princess Paula and became the mulleted Finlay you all know and love. Before Sayama came over and stunned everyone with his speed and quickness, there was a sensation in British rings by the name of Kung Fu. This was after he unmasked against one of Steven Regal's idols, Cyanide Sid Cooper:

This might interest you Parv as a guy made a video about the moves in WoS: I listened to Regal on Austin's podcast yesterday and he has a theory that the reason the British style was generally more technical than the American style is that the rings were smaller and rock hard. I suspect it has a lot to do with the Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules myself, but it's as good a theory as any.

Alan Kilby vs. King Ben (6/18/86) This had the potential to be an exciting bout but it was a bit flat. There was a spot that summed up Ben nicely. Kilby put him in a hold and Walton exclaimed "danger here!" but Ben just lay there with a dopey grin on his face. Walton was so embarrassed/taken aback that he went into a lengthy (and unusual for him) explanation about how older wrestlers used to submit people instantly with the same hold and that Ben deserved credit for not submitting. To me it was yet another indication that Ben didn't get the most out of his bouts. There was some good stuff down the stretch but nothing outstanding. And par for the course in '86 when Walton said there were two rounds to go they immediately cut to the final round. These two years that ITV tried to kill off wrestling was a slow painful death. Skull Murphy vs. Alan Kilby (11/1/84) This was joined half way through and was good stuff. I've been impressed in the latest batch of footage how good Murphy was working from the top. Of course Kilby is a great opponent for him since he's just the kind of guy that heels love to pick on, but he's gone up in my estimation by leaps and bounds. Skull Murphy vs. Alan Kilby (7/10/85) This was supposed to be a title bout but Murphy came in seven pounds too heavy so it was switched to a non-title bout. Since the weights were worked, I'm not sure why they pulled these bait and switch tactics, but perhaps they did it to maintain the legitimacy and credibility of the weight classes. Murphy took out his frustrations on Kilby and I actually thought he cheated too much here. They had a better bout in them if it hadn't been all about Murphy riding his luck with public warnings. One thing Murphy had going for him was that everywhere they played crowds hated his guts. I don't know if it was his shaven head or his constant cheating, but he rubbed them up the wrong way. For that reason alone, I would consider him one of the stronger heels of the decade, but like I said I wanted a bit more out of this bout. Honey Boy Zimba vs. Alan Kilby (12/3/82) Boy was Zimba fat here. The most interesting thing about this was the spilled water that led to the finish of the Marty Jones/Skull Murphy match. I still can't figure out whether that was an intentionally booked finish. It just seems so convoluted that they would set-up the finish to the next match but having Kilby innocuously spill his drink bottle. If it was booked that way then whoever came up with it was either a genius or bored. Alan Kilby vs. Diamond Shondell (10/31/85) Shondell was from the same stable of wrestlers that were trained by Finlay's dad Dave Finlay Sr, only you'd never guess it because it was an out and out comedy wrestler. Walton found him highly amusing and it's worth watching the bout just to hear Kent's reactions. Really quirky stuff. Kilby had some great reaction shots. Alan Kilby vs. Billy Jo Beck (8/29/85) Trivia time folks. If anyone asks you what the final wrestling bout shown on WoS was then here's your answer, Alan Kilby vs. another Northern Irishman. Not what you'd call going out on a high note. Hidden Kilby gems look pretty scant at this point. Alan Kilby vs. Johnny Apollon (11/1/83) Apollon was a bodybuilder type that had been brought into the business by Lee Bronson and owned the gym that Keith Haward and Tom Tyrone worked out at, all of whom were good connections. He looked a decent prospect but didn't have any connection with the crowd and lacked any showman skills. Kilby was better in '83 than just the late 80s malaise, but I don't think he was the type to carry a lesser worker. More of a quality foil for heels. By and large the heels were meant to call the matches in British wrestling, but Apollon wasn't all that heelish and that was another area where he wasn't doing it for the crowd. I liked him enough to want to see him again though.

ACE VS MIDCARDER Cena vs Seth Rollins - Smackdown 27th December 2013 This was okay. I thought Cena started selling too much, too early as after a few minutes he was like he'd been in a fifteen minute fight, and that was off some pretty standard kick-punch-highspot rinse and repeat offence. I'm also not sure that having Rollins dominate was the best way to put him over. The way I see it, if the bout is even and you get your licks in, you come out looking much tougher than if you dominate for the entire bout and lose to a guy's finisher. All people remember is that Cena won not that Rollins took him to the limit. On the plus side, Rollins looked better than I expected. He's still a guy who's lacking in fundamentals, but his performance was mostly solid. I'd rate this one about ***

Gilbert Leduc vs. Quasimodo Ha, Quasimodo was awesome. I haven't seen this much commitment to character since Lon Chaney Sr. You could almost swear he was a hunchback and that the lump on his skull was some sort of cranial deformity. The match itself was nothing special. Quasimodo mainly worked nerve holds, which made it the French version of a Kamala match or something similar. But the eerie atmosphere made it seem like an old silent horror film and it would make a good bout for Halloween. Catch wrestling sure had a colourful rogues gallery. It's like the golden age of wrestling villains. Hell, there's even a Batman gimmick worker that I'm hoping to see soon, though I'm not sure if he actually plays the actual Batman or does a bat gimmick.

How is that in any way surprising? Aren't those the five biggest stars of the era those readers grew up in?

Let's ignore all the emotive language you used then. People were making GOAT arguments for Shawn in the late 90s. The internet was full of that stuff prior to his comeback. There's always been Shawn fans out there. There were boards where if you tried to argue that Misawa or Kawada were better workers than Shawn you'd be accused of being either a purist or an elitist. The WWE tapped into something that already existed. Shawn was already calling himself the show stopper and the icon before he left. A lot of it was ripping on Hogan. The big difference with his comeback was that the WWE had begun embracing its history more, partially out of a need for more content/programming and I suppose partially because Vince either felt nostalgic or a sense of fulfillment that he had finally run his last major competitor out of time and now was the time to reflect. So instead of ignoring history au every step, they embraced it and opened up about it and that gave Michaels the chance to add to his legacy. As for Bruno, I wasn't around in New York in the 70s so I can't speak to the way he was marketed and presented, but if her come along a few years later he would have been subjected to much more hype since the WWF was a bigger company then with a marketing machine behind it. I also wonder how people outside of New York thought of the way Bruno was presented. Maybe they thought everything coming out of NY was bullshit compared to the territories they followed.

Where are the Sting as GOAT arguments then? Why are you looking to the company for GOAT arguments? They call themselves the WWE Universe for chrissake, what do you expect? If you're looking for some bastion of the truth you're looking in the wrong place. I'm not, but the company tell me HBK is the GOAT anyway. And then loads of supposedly smart free-thinking fans repeat the line to me. A lot. Over and over again. For a decade. So what? You haven't really explained why this puts your nose out of joint. Is it some affront to you as a free-thinking wrestling fan? I don't see how anyone who came up through the Bret/Shawn era would bat an eyelid at any of this. I remember when Michaels returning to guest commentate on RAW was a big deal.

M-Pro came up in the thread about spotfests and since I haven't seen it in years I thought I'd reacquaint myself. This is a fun bout, but it's basically lucha without the psychology and a slightly more superior version of Hamada's UWF. The workers are all genuinely likeable, but the Kaientai stuff veers a bit too close to a parody of rudo teamwork, which is born out by the commentator explaining everything like it's a travel documentary. The shifts in momentum are similar to a trios match, but without the falls they come and go without much rhyme or reason. The rudo beatdown (that wasn't really a beatdown) could've gone for longer, which would have made the technico comeback stronger, for example. On the plus side, the finishing stretch was a barrel of fun, and I bought on Delpin's big nearfall at the end. I didn't have a problem with the length. It was a 10 man tag so it took longer for everyone to get their shit in. It was more the persistent rhythm that lacked a few subtleties.