ohtani's jacket

God, Flair is a wanker in that Historical Moments episode.

Angel Blanco Jr./El Hijo del Solitario vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Villano IV, TXT 2/25/12 This was an excellent match and a vintage Santo brawl. I guess the surprising thing about that is that Santo didn't feature prominently. With the focus squarely on El Hijo del Solitario and Villano IV and an excellent performance from Angel Blanco Jr, Santo was left to do his bits. Santo being Santo it was all very crowd pleasing. The most outstanding thing about the match was the amount of blood. All four guys bled buckets and by the end of the match both Santo and Blanco's masked were stained red. It was an authentic lucha brawl, perhaps the most authentic we've seen in a while. You could've taken any number of still shots, printed them in grainy black and white and imagined you were reading an old-school lucha libre magazine. But it also had a clever structure. What seemed like it would be an easy first up fall for the technicos was cut off and turned into a long beatdown. El Hijo del Solitario and Angel Blanco Jr, neither of whom is a worker of note, spent a long period working the technicos over, and you know it's not easy to make ripping a guy's mask open interesting. They actually spent longer working a cut than a rudo typically would in one of these matches and the fact that they could keep it from being dull was commendable. I watched the match twice and the second time I was tracking Angel Blanco Jr during the rudo control segment and I really felt that he contributed some excellent spots, including my favourite spot where both he and El Hijo del Solitario began punching Villano IV simultaneously on the mat. El Hijo del Solitario is a tall, sort of thinnish worker, who reminds me of how Cien Caras used to move in the 80s. His stuff doesn't look that good and he has these sort of swiping punches that almost look like open handed strikes (only his fist is closed), but either he was hitting Villano for real or Villano was selling them like a champ because it was all pretty effective. After so much abuse, the technicos' comeback was super hot. The Villano boys know how to brawl and there was plenty of swinging chair shots and sweet payback. A lot of people moan about lucha structure, and in truth the technicos probably took over too easily in this fall, but it's the heat for the comeback that really matters. The third fall is always a back and forth slugfest, but the point of the second caida is to give the technicos momentum heading into the final fall and show that they can deliver later on in the match. That momentum came in the form of Santo's famous plancha to the outside, which is one of the most perfect spots in all of wrestling and still breathtaking after all this years. The twist here, however, was that the technicos couldn't take the fall and so that momentum eventually whittled away. The rudos winning in straight falls was a smart piece of booking, I thought. The finish was great and the post-match wet everyone's appetite for the mask match at the end of this month. The rudos definitely came of this looking stronger than anyone could have possibly imagined. It also showed, from a structural point of view, that those easy falls that people complain about in lucha are only small windows of opportunity much the same as any other sport. You don't see that type of psychology in lucha often, but it exists. I will say this, though: it didn't grab me as the Match of the Year. The latest in a run of excellent matches coming out of Mexico, but not the Match of the Year. We'll have to wait and see about that.

The Bass/Tito MSG bout is one of Tito's best.

The point is that some people don't know what to make of it and give up because it's so different they can't understand it. As a result, they miss out on some good stuff. I have always loved singles matches, but the trios matches were really hard for me to get into at first. If they're not interested in those things then too bad for them. There's no rule that says you have to like lucha libre so why dumb it down? If you don't enjoy a match like Trio Fantasia vs. Thundercats then you're not a lucha fan and probably never will be. I don't need some Puro fanboy coming along and pointing out that it's not like puroresu. Why would anyone want it to be like puroresu? I mean pretty much everything people criticise lucha for are things I'm actively looking for in a match. I don't mind explaining lucha to people who have a genuine interest in it, but I'm not gonna waste my time on people who think other styles are inherently superior.

Kudo is a neat story the way she went from a kindergarten worker to one of the bigger draws in women's wrestling, but she wasn't any better than the midcard talent AJW had in the 70s, 80s and 90s. If she'd wound up in LLPW no one would talk about her.

Man, I dare you to watch every available piece of Otto Wanz footage on the Internet.

When I first got into lucha, I used to buy tapes and take them over to my friend's house and we'd mark out over all the stuff that different about lucha. If you're going to get into lucha you need to embrace all that stuff and love it. I don't agree with showing people matches that are like a Southern style tag or a classic American brawl or anything like that. I would recommend pure lucha all the way.

That Owen/Bret match has some great Owen stalling but as far as the actual wrestling goes it should not be on the set whatsoever.

I don't remember liking those Hokuto/Yamada or Aja/Kudo matches at all. My suggestions: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Leilani Kai, 8/21/86 and 4/27/87 Yukari Omori vs. Lioness Asuka, 4/15/87 Aja Kong/Bison Kimura vs. Bull Nakano/Grizzly Iwamoto, 8/19/90 Bull Nakano vs. Shinobu Kandori, chain match, 7/14/94 Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura, 9/5/99 Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi, 2/18/99 Mariko Yoshida vs. Yumi Fukawa, 5/4/99 Megumi Fujii vs. Mariko Yoshida, 5/24/03

That's fantastic.

The one time I went to a Joshi show the go-go-go style was a million times more fun to watch than the slower, storytelling matches. Those matches don't really resonate when you can't see what they're doing.

I don't agree. How can being more informed be worse for making a list? How many of the guys who voted for say, Dory Jr., in 2006 had actually watched a load of Dory matches? Seems to me that now everyone has greater exposure to a greater number of workers. Everyone is in a better position to make a real call. If I were to make a list today I would put all my new discoveries ahead of the consensus picks because the consensus picks are boring as shit to me. For most of the workers in the top 25 I never want to see another one of their matches in my life. There's just no way to be impartial about it. It's better left as a time capsule of that period of fandom.

Kudo failed to deliver in her interpromotional matches and it was those shows which fueled most tape watching back then. It would be fun to do a list these days but I think 2006 was perfecting timing. There was still an enthusiasm for tape watching back then and a type of innocence I'm not sure could be replicated. Innocence is not really the word I'm looking for, but a modern list would be more cynical and esoteric.

Tony St. Clair Mark Rocco Steve Wright Cien Caras Canek Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. Blue Demon, Jr. Nobuhiko Takada Minoru Suzuki Minoru Tanaka Koji Kanemoto Dick Vriji

Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, lightning match, CMLL 1/27/12 -- for a lightning match this was extremely good. Ten minutes can either be too short or too long in a lightning match, and many workers struggle to deliver something substantial, but this was as close to a proper match as you'll get with this stip. It wasn't perfect as they couldn't transition into the finish very well and the finish itself was contrived, but what shone through was how good these guys are at keeping things interesting. Panther was especially good with his selling and transitions, but both guys dug into their bag of tricks and the time simply wasn't an issue. It wasn't a MOTYC or anything like that (that's a bit of an overreaction), but as far as setting up a hair match goes it was as good as anything I can remember. Atlantis vs. Ultimo Guerrero, CMLL 2/3/12 -- this is the sort of match I'd usually give a wide berth, but I was impressed with both these guys in that January trios so I thought I'd give them a chance. Ah, I thought it was all right. They tried to have a physical match with mask ripping and punch combos and plenty of body shots. A few people commented that it was indicative of the modern CMLL main event style, but there's nothing special about trying to have a huge tercera caída in a lucha libre match. Atlantis has been working this way his entire career. Things petered out on this occasion, but at least they tried to add something extra to each transition. It wasn't Casas vs. Panther, but it wasn't exactly spotty either. Atlantis is looking good this year, but I was kind of shocked by how grey he is. Negro Casas vs. La Sombra, NWA World Welterweight Championship, CMLL 2/20/12 This was an excellent match. I'm struggling to think of any Casas matches I enjoyed more than this in the past 14 years. I don't know why everyone's working so hard lately, is it because business is down? I don't know what it is, but my opinion of CMLL has changed dramatically in the past few weeks. I haven't had this positive a vibe about the promotion since I first started this blog. This wasn't the classic lucha of 20 years ago, but it was smart and provided the perfect framework for how to have a modern match with a little bit of thought put into it. Sombra's been in more exciting matches than this, but I doubt he's been in anything as well worked. Casas was fantastic in this. His selling has always been his stock and trade, but what really stood out to me were the clever transitions. I'm starting to sound like Herb Kunze in this entry, but in the transitions in CMLL (and all wrestling really) have been so telegraphed for so long now that the work I'm seeing of late is exciting. Really smart use of a striking game against a bigger man and two big counters in the third caida that were sold about as well as the guy on offense can sell. Suddenly, I'm looking forward to CMLL matches. Fuego/Valiente vs. Arkangel de la Muerte/Virus, CMLL 2/21/12 Here's another excellent match. What is in the water? This was fabulous. Just pure lucha. The opening exchanges between Arkangel and Fuego weren't the greatest, but I'm not sure everyone appeciates the beauty of cooperative lucha holds. They didn't get the rhythm right here but it's a beautiful thing when they start flipping holds. The closest comparison I can make is a "veronica" in bullfighting. Valiente and Virus were outstanding. They're such a natural pairing and their opening exchange was gorgeous. I've never really made the connection before, but Virus reminds me of Dandy in a way. One thing that was really noticeable was how much better Arkangel's exchanges were with Valiente than Fuego. The monkey flips were awesome as was the begging off. Those are the moments to savour in lucha and a good example of what I'd like to see more of in those maestro tags where Navarro and Solar never wrestle anybody else. I know I've been saying this a lot, but I can't remember the last time I saw a rudo comeback this good. Perhaps it's because I didn't watch lucha much last year, but that karate chop foul was brilliant. And how much fun was the third fall? It was a bit short, but the rudo beatdown, the technico comeback, the fast paced exchanges, tope and the all in finish were fantastic. I feel like I'm being spoilt.

Mick McManus' ears.

It doesn't end there. Wait until the first time baby is sick enough you have to rush her to the ER. It takes years off your own life. Babies are amazing, but nobody told me how scary that part would be.

Gorilla would always shoot this down in commentary saying it took too long for Tito to get fired up. He had a point, though. Tito was at his best when he was fired up but it seledom ever happened.

I was a Hunter fan during the '98-00 period, but the thing that really killed him for me was when it was revealed he was behind the Austin hit and run. That was almost as underwhelming as the Higher Power.

I just read the debut of Sgt. Slaughter in the GI Joe comic. Didn't look a bit like Remis. Didn't look like the cartoon or action figure, either.

I stopped watching in 1991 after it was taken off the air due to parental complaints, probably would've stopped watching in '95 if I hadn't discovered the internet and stopped watching WWE properly in 2001 when the midcard failed to deliver the type of matches I expected after the WCW guys jumped. In particular, the Jericho vs. Benoit and Benoit/Angle matches really disappointed me. I suppose the company ended up delivering the type of matches I wanted to see during the Smackdown Six era, but I skipped that era altogether and didn't even read about it. I still enjoy the occasional WWE match these days, but I doubt I'll ever watch their weekly programming again. Reading the Hunter thread is amusing to me as I remember at the time I was such a big WWF fan that all I wanted was for Hunter to get over and WWF to continue their hot run against WCW. It's a lot more enjoyable when you're that into a promotion even if it's stupid. Japan is worse, though. I've lived in Tokyo for six years and haven't been to a wrestling show once. I could have hiked out to BattlARTS or Futen and probably should have, and I suppose I could have seen guys like Solar and Navarro, but I dunno if I'd go if it was free. Lucha has actually been pretty enjoyable of late, including a lot of good stuff from CMLL, so I can watch a few matches a month and be satisfied.

On second review it wasn't a five star match. Sorry to disappoint.

What an edition of Tito Santana vs. The World we've got in store for you today. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #38 -- Skinner The alligator man. These guys did some things worthy of Steve Keirn vs. Tito Santana, but if work is ever a barometer of how happy guys are both these guys seemed glum. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #39-- The Repo Man This was surprisingly good. I mean in a video library filled with matches that were never booked to anywhere and workers who didn't give a shit, these guys actually tried. It didn't count for much in the end, but there were some fun exchanges. Fuck knows what was going through Vince's mind with these gimmicks, though. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #40-- IRS Boring as shit. In other words, Rotunda's forte. Some guys are mechnical and sterile (Canek, Blue Demon Jr), Rotunda was just boring. It was like a disease. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #41 -- The Berzerker Coliseum Video, how was this a grudge match? I'll say this for Tito, the man had professional pride. Could have been worse. TITO SANTANA VS. THE WORLD #42-- w/ High Energy vs. The Repo Man and Nasty Boys Five star match. On par with the best lucha trios and All Japan six-mans.

Older lucha is closer to NWA style matwork, but NWA style matwork is bullshit for the most part. It's a bunch of leverage holds until it's time to hit the ropes and do a finish. Lucha matwork (when submission heavy) is far better. You need to watch the right guys on the mat, though. Casas and Santo aren't a good mat pairing. Santo was a better mat worker than Casas but you don't get strong matwork in most Santo matches unfortunately.

What other great Dangerous Alliance six mans are there? This is the great Dangerous Alliance six man. From memory I had this in my top 5.