ohtani's jacket

That Martel/Lawler match is pretty sweet. Martel did a good job playing the subtle heel. Definitely going to watch more Martel before it's all said and done. I'm curious who was better in the 80s, Hennig or Martel?

Negro Casas, Black Magic y Mano Negra vs. Mocho Cota, Bestia Salvaje y Emilio Charles Jr., CMLL 5/13/94 Jesus, Cota, Salvaje and Emilio! Check out the mugs on those three. This was rudos contra rudos and started off with some nifty matwork between Black Magic and Salvaje. It's been a while since I've seen Bestia look good in a match and I was instantly reminded of what an underrated talent he was. It was also the best Smiley has looked on the mat in CMLL, which was a nice surprise. Mano Negra and Emilio followed suit and were rock solid. Negra continued his inspired post mask loss run, which was miles better than the lead in to his apuesta match. As they grappled, Cota began stirring trouble from the apron in his usual maniacal fashion. The camera stayed on for quite some time and it was interesting watching him snap from one extreme to the other. As soon as Casas was in, he went straight after Cota, so I'm guessing this was early build towards their hair match. Cota ended up taking over and Bestia impressed me to no end with the sharpness of his rudo beatdown on Smiley. Great punches. A quick search of the Match Finder found no trace of a singles match. The things we miss out on. Emilio helped beat the shit out of Casas to end the fall, thus beginning perhaps the best thread to the match, Emilio vs. Casas. It's not every day you see Emilio Charles Jr and Casas work together, so you better drop what you're doing and watch this. While that particular ass kicking was going on, Bestia was giving one of the patrons a nice up close look at how great his punches look from a foot away. Casas sold his beating like he was in another postal code. At one point, he was trying to punch his way out of the corner and collapsed, desperately lunging at Cota's tights. There was some weird storyline going on where Smiley was trying to help Casas but Negra wasn't. I'm sure it didn't make much sense even in Spanish. Negra then tried this cool choke takedown on Cota, but the Cota team were no mugs in the ring. Bestia threw the most beautiful left hand I think I've ever seen, and of course Cota was in the thick of it all like some kind of vindictive ringmaster. Casas popped back up on the apron in a not-so-great moment of selling, but if you're going to pop up on the apron to lead your side's comeback then there's no better way than the headbutt he gave Cota to turn the tide. Unfortunately, Smiley's retaliatory beatdown of Bestia wasn't in the same league as the one he'd had dished out to him, but it got the job done. There was an amusing moment between falls when Casas began beating on Cota in front of some front row seats. The patrons cleared the seats to avoid being hurt and Casas used the woman's handbag to thrash Cota. Cota picked the thing up and flung it across to the other side of the ring, and you could see the woman aghast about her handbag. Eventually, the ref handed it back to her companion while Cota did his best Terry Funk impersonation and tried to pick a fight with a photographer. The third caida started with a series of exchanges where teammates were making saves for one another until finally it came down to Cota and Negra with no one from Negra's side willing to help him. Negra threw a punch at Casas, who was hugging the apron, but as you'd expect by now there was no big angle. Instead we got more Casas vs. Emilio and God was it great. The finishing stretch was a lot of fun with Cota doing a hilarious punch drunk sell off a Smiley body check then getting caught in a bear hug submission. But as Smiley was shaking Cota all over the ring, Casas ran straight into an Emilio power bomb and that was the match one, two, three. Not a vintage performance from Casas kayfabe wise. The match was fun, though there's definitely better rudos contra rudos stuff out there. Cota was good, but didn't have the same aura as his 80s stuff and was a bit of a sideshow act compared to his godliness on the 80s set. Still, he managed to amuse.

Johnny Saint Pros: * 'Overnight sensation' when debuting for Joint Promotions in 1969 after ten years on the independent circuit * Captured George Kidd's vacant World Lightweight Championship in 1976 defeating Jim Breaks for the title * Presented as the spiritual heir to Kidd and kayfabed as his pupil (actually had very little to do with Kidd and was trained by Billy Robinson) * 10 time World Lightweight Champion as well as British and European Lightweight Champion * Positioned as the top British lightweight wrestler of the 70s and 80s and more or less continental Europe as well * Featured on Cup Final Day three times in his 70s heyday and a regular at the Royal Albert Hall * A regular television fixture from his television debut in 1969 through to the end of wrestling on TV in 1988 * Enjoyed a late career comeback in part to the renaissance of World of Sport through The Wrestling Channel * Greater influence over modern indy workers than any other Euro candidate on the ballot Cons: * Was never really in demand in North America or Japan * Questionable whether he was as good an in-ring worker as other lightweights such as Grey, Breaks or Cortez * Idiosyncratic style * As with all lightweight candidates, actual drawing strength difficult to ascertain * Strangely, not on any of the Wembley Arena shows

If this were 1993 and people were saying wrestling has never been better, I wonder how many people would disagree. There's always going to be people who prefer the contemporary product and those who live in the past, and the same people saying Lanza are wrong and the same ones who'd turn around and say the WWE today is better than the Attitude era or the Smackdown Six era or whatever else suits them. The truth as always lies somewhere in the middle. Some things in wrestling are better today and some things are not, and the same maxim extends as far back into the past as you care to go. If you break the 1980s down from '80 to '89, some things were better in the early 80s and some things were better by the late 80s. Some promotions got stronger while some territories died out. In 1989 you could have argued whether things were better or worse than the 70s to early 80s.

No promotion wants blood on TV, no promotion wants a fan anywhere near the ring, and no promotions wants the threat of a riot. That doesn't mean the heels today couldn't incite those things. Wrestling has been sanitized. Didn't Finlay get fired as a road agent for some flag burning angle or something?

I don't get the emotion thing. Last night I watched the most emotional mask match in 14 years, and people went on a complete emotional roller coaster over Daniel Bryan.

So?

Navarro is their father.

6 man tag teams should absolutely be included. There is no fathomable reason why they shouldn't. Six man tag wrestling is tag wrestling.

Ricki Starr and Gorgeous George in the same ring together was pretty mind blowing. I'm not sure how much of a typical Starr showcase the Hermann match was, but it was neat seeing Starr cut loose at the end. Russ Davis, though... A little bit would be okay, but the guy doesn't have an off button.

I don't see how Dandy and Satanico constitute a tag team, but they did have another big match in 1990 against Atlantis and Azteca.

Rollerball Mark Rocco Pros: * A television favourite particularly during the 1977-80 period * Arguably one of the most successful heel acts in British wrestling history * Decorated British and World Heavy-Middleweight Champion * Pioneered an explosive new work rate style in matches against Marty Jones and Dynamite Kid * Highly regarded by his peers * Wrestled frequently in North America and Japan * One of the key figures to jump to Brian Dixon's rival All-Star Promotions where he was heavily pushed and presumably a draw Cons: * Work has been negatively critiqued in recent years, particularly his work as Black Tiger in Japan * Strangely, never featured that prominently on Cup Final Days, Royal Albert Hall shows or the Wembley spectaculars, though in the case of the later his billed 1981 clash with Sammy Lee fell through, as did a heavily promoted Royal Albert Hall clash with Kung Fu in '82, which Rocco covered for brilliantly on the night * Not really an international light weight draw. Overshadowed by Dynamite Kid in that respect

Is that Blackwell/Lawler match the 10 minute one that was on the Memphis set or something else?

Brian Maxine vs. Mal Sanders (4/23/79) Turning Maxine face was an ill advised idea. Who wants to see Brian Maxine as a blue eye? Not me says the guy who slowly grew to love him as a heel. The trouble with giving Sanders a title when he was in his early 20s was that the veterans still didn't want to put him over cleanly so he either gets tainted wins or an unfortunate injury as was the case here. Mal Sanders vs. Young David (2/2/81) But then we have this bout where Sanders should have some kind of seniority over Davey Boy Smith but instead is wrestled with total parity. That bothered me a bit as it was another example of what little thought Joint put into their booking. They had this stacked array of talent, but didn't really do anything with it. To be fair, this was part of one of those Davis Cup style team competitions they loved to run so they were going for a draw, but it rubbed me up the wrong way. The match was a typical non-Jim Breaks Young David match. Nothing else he did in England came close to that trilogy. Mal Sanders vs. Keith Haward (3/17/81) These two matched up well, though ultimately Haward ran rough shot over Sanders and Mal kind of came out of the match-up looking second best, but this is the kind of pairing I would have written off without a second thought five years ago. I need to revisit their title match now as this was your classic title shot earner. Haward always blows me away that there was a guy like him in 1981. He's like a pro-type Ken Shamrock. Really something. Mal Sanders vs. Sid Cooper (9/29/81) This was the final of a knockout tournament to decide the Mike Marino Memorial Shield; Marino having died in August that year. Now I like Sid Cooper, and if people like Breaks he's another obvious guy to check out, but his rule bending here was ridiculous by any standard. I like the odd bout where the rule bending gets totally out of control, but it didn't fit the occasion here and detracted from what could have been a pretty good match. The final fall where Sanders was clutching his rib cage and went all out to win the shield was exciting, but a technical contest would have been a better homage to Marino in my eyes. Sanders winning did feel like a big moment, though. I could be wrong, but I think Sanders was with Marino when he died on the side of the road. They were definitely traveling together that night. So there was a bit of emotion there behind Mal's win. Sanders isn't doing too badly. I'm starting to warm to him so much I'm calling him Mal.

There are five Thomson matches on tape and another two where he's doing a masked Exorcist gimmick. Jetlag uploaded one of his bouts against Majid Ackra. The others are after his comeback from a career threatening back injury and aren't so good.

Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero, mask vs. mask, 9/19/14 This was the most emotional mask match in lucha since the Atlantis/Villano III bout in 2000. The work was simple and effective. It was mostly built around nearfalls, and got better as the match went along, but the match itself didn't really matter. The result and the post-match afterwards were all about the emotion of a mask match. Jose Fernandez reckoned that Ultimo Guerrero kayfabed his family about the result and it's easy to believe. I've never been a fan of Ultimo Guerrero, but from the close-up of him telling the ring announcer his name and birthplace to the unmasking and the scenes that followed, the guy deserves a massive amount of props. In the days and weeks to come, I may go back and look at it as a match, but like the smart crowd with its large contingent of older fans there in anticipation of an Atlantis mask loss, let me just bask in the surprise. I never thought CMLL would do something to move me in 2014, not after the dog's breakfast that was the Rush/Casas hair match, but with one BS free main event they proved there's life in lucha libre yet. And that's enough to make a true believer out of anyone.

Clive was cool in the 70s, but that Ironfist kung fu gimmick killed it for me. He still had great matches with Grey in the 80s, but his matches against other top flight talent were disappointing. A good worker but not one I'd vote for.

She's worth nominating.

Her best match before 1990 is the Chigusa singles match. After 1997, her most notable match was the 2001 Satomura match.

Jackie Pallo Pros: * Mr. TV, one of the first guys to take full advantage of the opportunities TV exposure brought * Household name in Britain * One of the first wrestlers to adopt a razzmatazz television gimmick * Forged a show business career that included number acting appearances * Cup Final Day match with McManus purportedly drew a massive number of viewers Cons: * Breakaway independent promotion failed * Was said to be a poor businessman * Other wrestlers didn't have a high opinion of him as a worker * Not a hugely popular figure in the locker room * Only one full match of his survives on tape * Worked a comedy style some may not appreciate * 1985 autobiography exposed the business * Only had one championship run, the British Heavy-Middleweight title in 1969, which he won during a feud with Bert Royal * More than likely wasn't trusted by promoters due to his constant threats to break away and form his own promotion

The Sakuraba matches were a great eff you to the UWF. Rumour has it that Tamura very nearly went to Pancrase, which would have been a loss for late 90s puroresu.

What I meant by limited footage is that there's not much footage of him for voters to watch including none from Germany that I know of. German tournaments aren't something I am very familiar with and I imagine that is true for most voters. I'm not even sure how important the tournaments were in relation to each other as most people are only aware of Hanover. Hoffman being booked to win each tournament by Kaiser was only a possible con, if he was the biggest star in the promotion or indeed the country then it makes sense, but it's something Daddy gets held against him in relation to Brian and Max Crabtree. I can't speak for his AWA standing, but I don't think he was a big star in Japan. Certainly not on Billy Robinson or Frank Gotch's level. Kaiser is an interesting guy for a candidate. Is it fair to say he was the most important German promoter of the post-war period? Promoters haven't really gotten a look in for the European section yet.

Because people don't want to watch wrestlers when they're old and broken down? You have to be pretty invested in a wrestler (or curious) to want to see how good he was all after his prime. And greatness in older wrestlers is even more contentious than greatness in wrestlers full stop. People who like the wrestler tend to get far more out of their later worker than people who don't. Look at Blue Panther.

Thanks for that. I keep reading that Joyce wasn't mean enough and didn't want to hurt people, so was he really a ripper?

Jumbo had a whole period where he worked comedy 6-man tags. I don't know how many are on tape, but I'm damn sure people ignore them.