ohtani's jacket

I guess I should mention eating out. Unless you want to live off convenience store or supermarket food, you'll want to eat out at some point. There are a lot of Western style restaurants that are easier to order at and Japanese chains where you can point at a picture or whatnot, but eating at an authentic restaurant can be a little challenging. There are certain parts of Tokyo that are more tourist friendly than others. If there is a particular type of food you want to eat, I would do some research about the best place to eat it.

They stopped selling Pasmo and Suica cards due to the semiconductor shortage, though I believe they still have some available for tourists. Almost everybody uses Pasmo and Suica on their phone these days. If you need to find train information, I recommend using https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/?sub_lang=nosub or https://www.hyperdia.com/en/ When people visit Tokyo, they usually stick to the easiest routes but residents always go for the fastest route which often involve multiple transfers. If you're on a crowded train and you are standing in front of the door, your best option is to step off the train at each stop and stand to the side. Let the masses get off and then board the train again. I made this mistake on my very first trip to Japan in 2004 and was pushed off the train onto the platform. The price of the Japan Rail Pass went up in October. It was a pretty hefty price increase -- https://www.japan-guide.com/news/japan-rail-pass-cost-increase.html That said, shinkansen tickets aren't cheap either, so you really need to calculate what the best option is. Japan is becoming less of a cash society. People are increasingly using their phones to pay for everything. I often get crap from my co-workers for relying on cash too often. Don't worry about the language barrier so much. Just wing it.

Also, let's not forget that Inoki drew huge ratings doing faux-MMA matches in the 70s.

New Japan's TV ratings began to fall in the second half of 1983 and fell below All Japan in October of 1985. The broadcasting contract they had with TV Asahi at the time was from April '84 to March '86. In October of '86, TV Asahi replaced New Japan on Fridays with Music Station, a Japanese version of Top of the Pops that is still running to this day. New Japan switched to Mondays, however TV ratings continued to fall below 10%. TV Asahi tried to do something desperate by combining pro-wrestling with variety TV. In April of '87, they launched the new variety show format combining studio segments with broadcasts of the matches, using comedians and such. Ratings fell below 6% and that was the death knell for New Japan being broadcast during prime time. As with all things, it was a combination of factors. New Japan's boom peaked in '82 and there was a steady decline from thereon out, mostly because of the talent they lost. Once they lost the Friday 8pm slot, they lost a chunk of viewers who didn't follow them to the Monday and Tuesday timeslots, and then the new variety show format was a disaster. The matches stopped being broadcast live and by the end of the Showa era in '89 there was no wrestling being broadcast in primetime on Japanese TV. I think the worst you can say about the UWF guys is that they didn't boost the ratings and salvage the time slot. However, I don't think you can say that they were responsible for the huge ratings drop. That started when the whole Inoki scandal broke and everyone quit.

This was a sprint compared to their usual matches, but even a sprint is worth watching between these two rivals. More hard-hitting action between the indies' best matchup.

If you had told me in 2005 that Tenzan and Kojima had a 60 minute singles match and that 20 years later I'd be into it from start to finish, my reaction would have been Bwahahahaha... but here we are. It's 2005 and their time is now. Yeah, it's repetitive. Yes, they go to the well once too often. But it's Tenzan and Kojima wrestling 60 minutes. Did you ever think you'd see that? FWIW, I think the finish was a work. If you're legit collapsed, I don't think you're flicking your hair into place. Is this a great bout? Does it matter? Tenzan and Kojima went 60 minutes. Let that sink in for a while.

I've loved this matchup on the indies, but I've lost track of how many promotions they've worked in. This was the mainstream version of their match. The fact that they can go 30 minutes plus is no surprise to anyone who has followed them in the indies, but where they exceed here is in creating the sports entertainment drama that has Mike Tenay and Don West gushing. This is laid out exceptionally well and is an engrossing Iron Man bout. This may be second only to Rude/Steamboat in terms of mainstream Iron Man bouts.

This was criminally short given the workers involved. Did they really think we didn't want another 10 minutes of this? Mind you, with the editing fuckery it may have actually been 10 minutes longer than it appeared. There's not a single one-on-one matchup in this match that isn't intriguing and what they do give us is good stuff. Shocker still has his face paint on. I really need to unpack that mystery.

I'm gonna break my thoughts down by category one at a time. Mechanics (listed somewhat chronologically) MS-1, Espanto Jr., Hombre Bala, Rambo, Emilio Charles Jr., Bestia Salvaje, Pierrothito Smooth, bumping bruisers with big grins. Generally maskless, tended who have more personality than starpower. Can captain a team, but generally more natural as the #2 or #3 in a match. Often more workmanlike than their talents necessitate, and as such they tend to be better in 3v3 matches than 1v1s. A lot of these workers ended up in longtime rivalries with tecnicos who were much bigger stars (Espanto vs Santo for instance), perhaps because their inring ability and general selflessness made for a great pairing with guys who actually did need to be the center of attention all the time. Once a fairly common type of worker, but now not as much. Maybe the mechanics all have masks now and expressive faces is no longer an important feature for this group. I like where you're going with this category, but to me a mechanic implies someone who is technically proficient but lacking in charisma. A lot of the names you mentioned were capable of being fabulous performers. Anyone of those guys could have carried a feud if given that spot, so I prefer to view them as perfect foils. There are two skills that are crucial for this type of worker (aside from carrying a big feud), and those are can you add to a trios match as a secondary guy and do you have a repertoire of spots that can elevate a trios match if you have limited ring time. To me, trios matches that have a single throughline (the main beef) are infinitely inferior to trios matches where the secondary workers create mini-beefs that complement the main storyline. Great rudos are capable of picking on a guy to add to the heat or doing something spectacular during their spot to keep driving the momentum forward. Given that 90% of trios matches end up being matches featuring randomly thrown together workers instead of matches building to a singles bout, bringing it every night and being the glue of a trios match become important for workers in this category. I don't know if you intended this to be the classic rudo role, but it's arguably the most important role in lucha.

Where would you put Satanico, Santo, Casas and Pirate Morgan?

Why is the grouping part in spoilers? That's a fascinating post. I'd like to discuss it elsewhere outside of this thread. In the Microscope maybe?

This was much better than I expected. It was a title match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship, and while it was far from a traditional title match, I appreciated the measured approach they took to the opening fall and the amount of selling Mistico did. They managed to work a compelling match despite the fact that workrate and elaborate spots had replaced matwork and submission teases as the main focus of a lucha title match. We tend to think of modern workers as not slowing down to sell and let a match breathe, but they're not helped by the television editors who are just as jumpy as the workers. I'm sure if this was edited with a slower rhythm that people wouldn't have been so down on the state of modern lucha at the time.

This was Jamie Noble's debut in ROH. There's a strong anti-Smackdown vibe among both the crowd and the commentary. It was a bit annoying, to be honest. It's not as though the ROH product is that much better than Smackdown. It's been a while since I've seen a ROH match that was as good as that Angle vs. Cena match. Apparently, Gibson would be back in the WWE before the year was out, so yeah. It's been a minute since I've seen Spanky. This was perfectly good North American junior heavyweight wrestling. There was a void for this type of wrestling in the North American market in 2005, but it seems like ROH didn't want to pigeonhole anyone by weight class.

Not what I'd consider a wrestling match. Just a bunch of screwing around outside the ring. I did like the rolling small package spot, though. Ending it in the ring was stupid, I thought. What's the point of falls counting anywhere if you finish the match in the ring?

Vic Christy vs Great Togo (NWA Los Angeles, 08/27/1951) This was a clip of the last five minutes. Togo remains my favorite of the Japanese heels. Duke Keomuka vs Blackie Guzman (Southwest Sports, 1952) This was already uploaded with a better film transfer. Cowboy Karlson & Billy Varga vs Duke Keomuka & Wild Red Berry NO SOUND (Southwest Sports, 1952) Probably one for the completists as there's no sound. I haven't gotten a firm grasp on 50s Texas wrestling yet but there wasn't anything that stood out that was different from the other territories.

One more thing, if either of you have hay fever, April is still pollen allergy season in Japan.

I don't know how English friendly it is but most tickets are bought at convenience stores.

Bud Curtis vs Alex Kasaboski (NWA Los Angeles, 01/29/1951) This was a fun scrap. Once the "Hoosier Hotshot" Bud Curtis got going it was exciting stuff. I love how Jack Little calls a snapmare like it's the most thrilling move ever invented. Andre Drapp vs The Bushman (NWA Los Angeles, 01/29/1951) Andre Drapp looked fantastic in this match. Jack Little says that promoter Johnny Doyle has been touting Drapp was a future world champion. Makes me wonder how successful Drapp could have been if he'd remained in the States. He certainly looked like world champ material. The Bushman is an interesting cat. Little says that he comes from some Northern Amazon tribe where the men wear their hair in afros to represent the rays of the sun. Bushman used to do an Elephant Boy gimmick. There's a great picture of him atop an actual elephant: The Bushman had a strong Inca Peruano vibe to me, though not as technically polished. Really good bout. Drapp was fabulous.

I am slowly learning that there's more to Jaime Noble than Rey Mysterio matches. This was a fun match between two evenly matched guys. I'm already on record as saying I prefer workrate Homicide to brawler Homicide, and Noble is an excellent opponent for Homicide in that respect. Unfortunately, the match gets interrupted by CM Punk, but that leads to a memorable "backstage" scene where Homicide beats Punk up while he's straddled on a bucking bronco ride then turns the machine on. Punk goes flying everywhere. That would have been a great spot in a Memphis match or one of Black Terry's Arena Naucalpan brawls.

I was kind of torn about whether it was a good idea to book this match. You're basically saying to the audience that you've got this guy who's the ex-champ that's so much better than the guy who's the current champ. On the other hand, Joe deserved a return match. Aries ran from him too often at the beginning of the match, which is not the kind of image I'd want to present if I were the newly crowned champ, but eventually there was some good back and forth action and Aries began fighting with the guts that won him the belt. Unfortunately, the finish was botched. It was supposed to be a fluke pin where Joe's shoulders were accidently caught on the mat, but the ref counted three before Aries was ready and it looked incredibly awkward as Aries reserved the hold after the ref had already called for the bell. Positives from the match -- Joe went hard and I'm enjoying his 2005 more than his title run.

Hans Schmidt vs Zack Malkov (NWA Chicago, 1950s) This was already out there. Benito Gardini & Al Williams vs Cyclone Anaya & Walter Palmer (NWA Chicago, 05/26/1950) I had forgotten how shocking Al Williams' tattoos were for this era. It's kind of like when you see guys with long hair and sideburns. Not a lot happens in this match, but I can totally see Gardini becoming Matt D's favorite 50s comedy worker. He reminds me of Porky at times. He does this great spot where he's desperately trying to stretch over the ropes to make a tag and ends up bouncing up and down on the ropes. And the comical interactions between Gardini and Williams are more entertaining than the match itself.

Bob Backlund vs. Larry Zbyszko (WWF, 11/08/80) This is a return match but the heat is on Zbyszko vs the special guest referee, Tony Atlas, making Bob a passenger at times. OK for what it was, but not a very satisfying return bout.

Just watched the Shocker/Wagner 2005 Copa Jr final and it caps an amazing run from Shocker from 2000 to 2005. One of the best big match workers of the era. Give him his props. Give him his flowers.

This was the final of the La Copa Junior. I'm not sure what was up with Shocker's face paint but it must have been representative of something. What a great match. One of the best CMLL matches of the first half of the decade. The crowd heat was unbelievable. I can't remember seeing a final to a lucha tournament that was as good as this match. I'm sure there have been other matches, I just can't recall any. Shocker was an incredible big match worker and the promotion is going to miss him when he jumps to AAA. Fans of old school lucha may turn their nose up at this bout, but I liken it to the Cena vs. Angle bout from No Way Out. Given the limitations -- two quick falls and a long tercera, I can't imagine Shocker and Wagner coming up with a better bout. This isn't the last Shocker match to make tape before he leaves, but it's the most important. It's been a hell of a ride. I remember getting a comp of Shocker matches back in the day and thinking it was okay, but not the lucha I really wanted to see compared to 1989-92 CMLL, but finally immersing myself in the era, I can unequivocally state that this was very, very good.

This would have been a huge match if it had happened in AEW and here we get it as a throwaway match. They match up well and do some cool stuff together, but there's a house show vibe throughout and they never really ratchet up the stakes. The potential was there for them to have a great match at some point down the line.