ohtani's jacket

Nobody remembers events exactly as they happened. In Bret's case, he's repeated the line about never injuring someone so many times that he clearly believes it never happened. Bad News came out and said that was bullshit. I'm more inclined to believe Bad News for the simple reason that it's highly unlikely that Bret never injured anyone, but all it really amounts to is two ex-wrestlers disagreeing over something that happened aeons ago. I can't understand why anyone would be interested in it unless they want proof of Bret talking shit, but at the end of the day you have to take one worker's word over the other. Bret might be lying, he might have conned himself into believing it never happened, he may even have been oblivious to what he did wrong at the time. For all we know, he didn't understand what was happening at the time and has continued to misunderstand it all these years. Perhaps he forgot about it until Bad News brought it up and struggled to make sense of something he thought he couldn't possibly have done. My point is that there's no way to know whether Bret is lying and knows damn well what happened all those years ago. Some people might apologise for the sake of it, but Bret's the type of guy who'll find an excuse for anything. As for sharing the same perspective, it's not going to happen if you're talking about Bret's reputation as a worker being brought into "disrepute." Bret prides himself on his work. He would never admit that he was anything less than what he claims to be. Well, is Dynamite Kid really the most trustworthy person for an honest account of what happened? Does it even matter whether he has any reason to lie? When it comes to wrestlers, a lot of people pick and choose what they want to believe. On one hand, they think wrestlers are carnies and all full of shit, but when a wrestler says something they buy suddenly we're supposed to believe these guys? People ought to read these books for entertainment purposes and not to learn the truth. I'm not saying Dynamite Kid is lying, but just because he said it in his book isn't any reason to believe it. Sure, Bret could've said that. The only problem is that it's Bret Hart we're talking about. I don't think you can write a book without bias, especially not an autobiography. What Roberts is saying is probably true, but it's easy to make observations about other people. If someone were to say something about Jake, chances are he'd get defensive. My point about your opinion was really in regard to Stu Hart: Okay, so Bret has thought a lot about his father, are you going to tell him that he's wrong? That he ought to think of his father as some kind of monster? Bret's opinion about his father is Bret's opinion and you just have to accept that. There's a difference between not agreeing with someone's opinion and out and out stating that they're being dishonest. Well, then it's a warped, nutty and extraordinarily egotistical book. If you want honesty, you got it right there. What does it matter if Bret has an ego anyway? If there was no ego, there would've been no Bret "the Hitman" Hart. He would've been some regular Joe in Canada. Ego is part of what drives people to succeed, but it also has an ugly side. Personally, I think Bret is a complicated guy. If he comes across as egotistical, I think it has a lot to do with his insecurities, but I don't wanna draw a lot of conclusions about some guy I don't know. Everybody makes mistakes in life. Bret's just played out in public or as close as the wrestling business comes to being "public." To say he was the master of his own demise simply plays into the Shakespearean tragedy thing that you don't think it's worthy of. He fucked up -- a few times, numerous times, whatever. Well, everything I say is obtuse, but let me try to explain myself -- has Bret really moved on? From all accounts, he sists at home watching WWE and critiquing the workers' performances, both his own relatives and other people. I think he'd kill to wrestle again, but he knows he can't do it physically or to the level or standard that he did before. He tried hard to stay away from the business, but his marriage to that younger woman fell apart and now he's hit a bit of a dead end. All of this is perfectly understandable. The fact is that other people never let him move on. If he reappears on RAW, hundreds of threads like this pop up. Wrestling journalists, or whatever you call them, ask him the same questions. People will never let him forget Montreal or Owen or any of that mess. I think they should let the guy be. If he embarrasses himself on this RAW stint or by working a match, so what... If it means that Vince "won" in the long run, so what... It's a childish business and people feed into it over and over again. I'm sure none of that made any sense, but does it really matter that Bret is coming back? Ask yourself that question. If you think it matters, then ask why? If the reason is because Bret is full of shit, ask yourself why it matters that Bret Hart is full of shit. All I want to know is why anyone would care.

Frank, why do you expect two people to have the same recollection of events that happened thirty years ago, especially wnen it's a "he said/she said" point of contention? You're not going to get an honest third party account of events, and I don't see why it matters. Of course Bret has his own ideas and accounts of what happened in his life and career -- he's writing about himself. You're looking for way too much truth out of what is simply an autobiography. If Bret were to stop and argue every point from both sides he wouldn't be giving his own account of what happened. And his self-awareness or whatever you want to call it, is it supposed to match your opinion on what you read? The reader can draw their own conclusions. I read the Stu Hart part that you quoted and didn't think there was anything wrong with what he did to the kid who was trying to steal his car. Ultimately, he was a guy who both feared and respected his father. It's not an uncommon story. Maybe Bret could have been more introspective about how it shaped him, but who's to say he's ever thought about it that way? I'm sure Bret tried to protect his father in a way when he wrote this book, while not giving a fuck about people he didn't care for, but that's only natural too. It's like you're searching for the perfect book to give you accurate statements about something we'll never know the truth about. Bret has an enormous amount of pride and more than his share of issues, and you need to bear that in mind when you read his book. He's also been through a lot of shit I hope I never have to go through, so if he comes out of the whole thing seeming like he's fucked up then that's probably a pretty honest account of himself whether he intended to portray himself like that or not. The guy is struggling to figure out what to do with himself now that he can't wrestle anymore and if he writes a book or reappears on WWE TV (which he already did for his HOF induction anyway), who cares... Of course he misses the spotlight. He was perfectly happy in the role they had him playing up until 1995. The idea that he should get on with his life, while true, is easier said than done.

Yeah, that's a good point. Mind you, after watching that Navarro vs. Electroshock match that Phil found, it seems like Negro is only really interested in "I stretch you, you stretch me" matches these days. It's an easy way for him to work. I'd love to see him work a proper singles match for a change.

Speaking of people I've never head of, who is this Babinsack guy? Has he been around for a while?

I knew Damon but only because the 2004 Red Sox/Yankees series was the only time I got into baseball.

I see.

Yeah, but what's it got to do with WON columnists not knowing every facet of popular culture?

You also live in Japan. Where, it should be noted, to be a nationally recognized MMA fighter all it takes is to be black. I don't get it.

Give it a shot. FAVOURITE WORKERS: FAVOURITE PROMOTIONS: FAVOURITE MATCHES: BEST THING ABOUT THIS DECADE: WORST THING ABOUT THIS DECADE:

I don't know who half these people are either.

Is Vince counter programming against Hogan's debut or booking towards Wrestlemania?

Solar/Black Terry vs. Negro Navarro/Rambo, UWE, 10/17/09 This continued the trend of matches failing to be anything special, but it did feature some high end Solar vs. Negro Navarro. In all of their recent matches, they've shown that they're not content to rest on the laurels of local MCs hyping them up as maestros extraordinaire. The 10/5 Misioneros vs. Space Cadets match from Futrap de Nuevo Laredo and the 11/22 Solar/Platino/Perro Mastin vs. Negro Navarro/Fishman Jr/Arcanos trios from Arena Ray Alcantara were good examples of this. There's no doubt that these guys see themselves as the premier workers in lucha libre and the fact that they keep adding new crinkles to their work means that this match and the one from Alcantara were as good as anything they've done this decade. That's not the problem -- the problem is that this match-up is beginning to dominate everything else around it. In every Navarro vs. Solar match, you know that they're going to square off three times. A singles match within a tag or trios, basically. There's nothing wrong with having a predominant match-up in tags, especially when these guys are feuding over a title (the Salvador Americas Title to be precise), but the constant emphasis on Navarro vs. Solar reduces the other workers to bit-part players. That might be okay when they're working with locals, but not when it's Terry. You never wanna see Black Terry's role reduced. Ever. Sure, Terry had his ring time here with Rambo (who appears to have lost a lot of weight, incidently), and if we're being honest it wasn't one of Terry's better performances (more scrappy than good), but the fact that they didn't switch match-ups in the second caida was a major disappointment to me. There was barely any Terry/Navarro in this at all and the scraps that we did get was a transition for Navarro to leave the ring. A few years ago, when footage like this was scarce, this would've had MOTYC written all over it, but with a proliferation in lucha uploading in recent times, I've started to expect more. Despite having more Navarro footage available this year than any point in the decade, I still feel like we missed out on a large chunk of his work this year by not having IWRG's Thursday night tapings available. We never got to see any sort of finish to the Terribles Cerebros vs. Dinastía Navarro feud, so I was hoping for some killer Black Terry/Negro Navarro exchanges here to tie me over until the New Year. I don't mean to sound ungrateful to the good folk who make this stuff available to us, but it's frustrating when these workers who've been upholding the virtues of actual lucha libre let their match structure fall by the wayside. I don't expect a match where the falls overlap each other and tell a story. Sadly, that just doesn't happen in lucha anymore. Before I get too carried away, let me state that the third caida in this match is excellent and well worth watching for the awesome Navarro vs. Solar submission work -- nevertheless, they could've easily worked this a regular tag match instead of two separate matches. This was a two out of three falls match with more than enough time to do something special. Instead of concentrating on holds, they ought to be baiting each other. I'm not asking for some almighty struggle between good and evil, just a bit of needling. We've all seen Terry and Navarro beat on each other and we know that Solar and Navarro talk shit and mock each other. Ultimately, a bit of prickish behaviour would do these matches some good, because as much as I like Negro Navarro, his hard headed approach to wrestling and demands that his opponent be a man, he's not really forcing the issue with his in-ring behaviour, and I don't think these guys are doing lucha any great service by having matches with no swing in momentum. Navarro ought to have been champing at the bit to take on both these guys, but instead it was just another exhibition. There's a roadshow quality to these matches and they're really just another payday, but when the top workers in Mexico aren't trying then the entire country is full of lacklustre wrestling, which is a shame, because if these guys actually worked matches in an aggressive manner like Satanico used to we might see great matches for a change instead of a cool spot here and there.

Please, who wouldn't be defensive in the athletic/entertainment business? Most of us don't go around having our lives critiqued in minute detail. I think a fair few people would lose the plot if the shoe were on the other foot.

Freelance vs. Oficial Fierro, hair vs. hair, 11/29/09 This was more like it. Fierro came into the match with his arm bandaged up and Freelance spent most of the match going after the injury and telling the ref to fuck off. Nothing outstanding, but at least he did the whole una sopa de su propio chocolate schtick without any qualms. If anyone's going to be a Black Terry type figure in ten, fifteen years time, then it has to be Freelance, since he's one of the few young workers with any sort of clue. The ref screwed him over in the second caida when he blamed Freelance for an inadvertent ref bump, and I really liked how Freelance responded by upping the ante on the asskicking he was dishing out. Fierro did a nice job bumping and selling and managed to fend Freelance off so that Oficial 911 could soften him up on the outside. 911 gave Freelance a decent working over, while Yack stood around gaping... useless Pumpkin thing. This led to an awesome bit of chaos where Freelance pulled 911's mask off and Fierro took a nasty bump on a missed tope. This was a shockingly good bit of camera work by IWRG standards, as you could clearly see Fierro try to stop himself in mid-air to no avail. It wasn't quite up there with those Akira Nogami guard rail bumps, but it got a pop out of me. 911 returned to the scene and tried slapping some sense into Fierro before rolling him back into the ring. They danced a little more until Fierro caught Freelance off guard with a pinfall that really ought to have been a nearfall, cutting the match short somewhat. I dunno why they cut it off just as it was getting good, but I guess that's IWRG for you. On the whole, it was a pretty good match. The potential's definitely there to do this sort of match right if they give the tercera caida enough time. Whether they can still blade on TV is the real question.

RAMBO VS. VILLANO III, 6/14/01 RAMBO VS. VILLANO III, HAIR VS. HAIR, 6/21/01 Eight years is a long time to wait for your revenge, but that's how long it took José Luis Mendieta Rodríguez to finally meet up with senor Señor Mendoza again. PART ONE -- THE MANO A MANO RAGING NOODLES: Watching this I was thinking about how certain essentials and basics have been lost in pro wrestling matches as the years go by. There is nothing excessive here like most modern pro wrestling matches, but that's not to say this was a minimalist work. For example, the matwork was very well paced and the reversals were pulled off effortlessly. I guess one can say that both these guys were a bit limited physically at this point, I mean, I can only imagine what sort of injuries Rambo's had over his journeyman career. But that doesn't matter at all in this match, since both these guys are real workers and are very familiar with each other. The match they had in 1993 holds up remarkably better than a lot of the pimped AAA stuff of the early 1990s. Being a big fan of the AAA Mask vs Hair match, led me to be both excited about the potential here but also worried since it's hard to guess how a match is going to turn out quality wise. But I was really satisfied with what Villano III and Rambo pulled off here. There were two parts in this match, the first part being the matwork and it boiling over at the middle point into a great brawl. The matwork section had some great grappling action, and counters like Rambo headbutting (plenty of headbutt's in this bout) Villano's chest to break Villano's bridge. Another great moment was when both guys got tied up in each others' double headlock, and rolled all the way out to the arena floor and then all the way back to the ring without letting go of the hold. They looked like two old dogs, fighting their hearts out and never letting their grip of each other go. This leads to some more natural matwork, until they stand toe to toe and Villano III just lets loose and delivers a big ole headbutt and it's on. It's very difficult to pace a match that goes back and forth with both guys building towards a draw. But Villano III and Rambo managed to pull it off here and it didn't feel contrived at all. This didn't have the big bumps that Rambo did in the past, but Rambo still had some nice moments like his missed bottom turnbuckle silla and the way he bumped and sold Villano's knee counter to his big running splash. When Rambo missed his silla, Villano immediately went after Rambo's head with some biting and the juices started flowing. As Rambo starts coming back and is about to get his revenge by posting Villano, the video cuts off for a brief amount of time. It's a huge shame, but watching lucha libre, one gets pretty much used to stuff like that happening. But as the video comes back, both crimson faced guys are on their knees in a brilliant exchange of vicious headbutts and manly slaps. It was so awesome that I have hard time articulating how great that was. As they start building towards the finish, Rambo hits this great big senton that looked so crushing as Rambo is pretty big at this point. A little after that, we get another great exchange, this time with each guys taking turns biting each other and it ending with a Villano III punching combo. As I mentioned earlier, this ends in a draw and the best part about that is that it gave us another great match to look forward to. The post-match stuff might be the best part of this match, as both guys can't stop going after each other and their emotions are so passionate at this point. They are both wounded and hurt, selling the previous 15 minutes of action, but they are still trying to fuck each other up with headbutts, kicks, and punches. This was pretty great. OHTANI'S JACKET: Rambo was billed as the rudo in this feud, but I'm not buying that. There was something of Satanico Daniel Lopez in Mendoza that made him a natural rudo. Sure, he'd had the big unmasking with women crying and his family around him, but a leopard never changes its spots. There was something vain about the way Mendoza courted babyface attention, despite being the same shit as ever. It reminds me of an amusing story my father used to tell about how he could never enjoy the Precious Pupp cartoon as a child, because all he wanted as for someone to ram their big toe up the dog's arse. Besides, Mendoza was the prick who took Rambo's mask in the first place, then turned around and took his hair... A man doesn't forget those things. The reason I like watching older luchadores is because they simplify everything. Rambo was never the greatest worker in the world, but he wasn't the type to hide behind his limitations. Hiding behind his limitations would've meant he couldn't hang with the better workers, and that just wasn't Rodríguez' style. He was gonna give himself his best shot at winning, especially against a bastard like Mendoza. So while this had some awkward moments, particularly in the stand-up parts, you have to appreciate how simple and direct it was: get the takedown, grind your opponent's face into the mat, and when that doesn't work, start with the short arm punches. Mendoza had a straight-up advantage on the mat. His father was inarguably the greatest mat worker in lucha history, and Mendoza probably spent his entire childhood trying to take his father down and failing. He knew his way around the mat like a child knows its way around the nursery, but I was impressed with how Rambo hung in there and even managed to turn him on a few occasions. The fact that Rambo was such a big guy made this even better. The other thing I liked about this was how slow it was. OK, you can argue that Rambo was out of shape and selling because he was short of breath, but lucha is a style that should be worked at half-speed with a large amount of exaggeration. This was roughly the same length as younger workers' matches, but with far less moves, more exaggerated selling and a greater emphasis on desperation takedowns. Mendoza, being a tweener at best and the prick who started this fight, was the first to start with the biting, and didn't he look like an old Dracula? That carney bastard has been in so many of these matches that there was a real gleam in his eyes when Rambo started bleeding. The finish was great too with the beautifully timed missed splash, Rambo selling Villano's tucked knees as if it were a foul, the accidental and convincing looking double pin, and the tooth and nail brawling afterwards. Neither guy really got a piece of each other, so we got more -- PART TWO -- THE HAIR MATCH RAGING NOODLES: This was classy, well, as classy as a bloodbath between two middle aged grapplers could be. We get the big hair vs hair match really soon after the previous singles match and both of these veterans delivered. Unlike the match from the previous week, this was a 2 out of 3 falls encounter. At the very opening, Villano III gets on the microphone and asks Rambo for a gentleman's agreement to have a high class wrestling match without any blows. This leads the announcers to debate about this and if it's right to do for such a high stakes bout. So the first fall is a little over 5 minutes, and is some lovely matwork. I thought this was more impressive than the first match in the series, and had a rhythm that was easier to get into. It wasn't complex like El Satanico's best matwork, but it was simple matwork pulled off gracefully by two old masters. They each knew every little openings and countered at just the right time. They did some awesome struggling as well, like when Rambo was fighting for an armbar and Villano for a leglock. The first fall ends after Rambo starts to nail his butt butts, and locks in a submission hold for the win. Second fall is short, as Villano makes a quick comeback with a dropkick and a hurricarana roll at the :17 second mark. As the third fall beings, Rambo brings out the best staple of all the hair vs hair match, the biting and the announcer enthusiastically cries "This is what we've been waiting for gentlemen". One of the concerns about luchas de apuestas, is how well the workers are able to gel the violent nature of this type of match with their nearfall attempts. Nearfalls are probably the worst thing to have happen to pro wrestling over this decade, as a lot of workers can't help it and they start to have these superfluous long finishing stretches that have no flow. Villano and Rambo are too smart (and probably too physically limited) to even attempt a ridiculous amount of nearfalls. They keep it pretty simple in the third fall with Villano III doing an excellent job of selling a shoulder injury from the first fall and Rambo working him over. Villano III starts to make a great comeback, fighting on the top rope with Rambo. They are slowly working towards a super DDT spot, but the way it's set up with Villano III weakening him with biting and headbutts was a neat touch. Both guys are now working towards finishing each other, and in a great moment, Villano hits a clothesline and just clutches at his injured arm. After a crucifix pin, they start trading these great punches on the mat. A short while after this, Rambo botches something from the top, but Villano quickly covers that up and goes for a tirabuzón pinfall press. We get some great pinfall and submission attempts throughout the 3rd fall, including Rambo going back to his combination that finished off Villano previously but it failed him in this case. They start throwing some more bloody headbutts, and the doctor starts to check Rambo's cut. The doctor is teasing a stoppage as Rambo valiantly refuses, so as the match continues, it leads up to my favorite false finish of the match: a great sunset flip from the apron from Rambo. After a cool crossbody block by Rambo that gets reversed and some more headbutts, we get this classic visual of the referee dragging a bloody wreck of a Rambo to the doctor to check on his cut one more time. This might seem like a bullshit finish in some cases, but I loved it here. The way Rambo sold it and performed it here was great. The whole post-match stuff was classic stuff with lots of words being exchanged, more punches and headbutts being thrown, an outright refusal from Rambo concerning the hair shaving, and Villano III lecturing how he didn't want to remove his mask when Atlantis beat him but he was a man so he did it. This was all wrapped together in a tight package. These were two guys with a lot of pride on the line and a lot of hate in their history. They went out there, kept it simple, fought to a bloody pulp, carved themselves up and it was a manly example of how great lucha libre can be. OHTANI'S JACKET: A gentleman's agreement? Look at how Rambo stops to sign autographs for the kids. Mendoza blows them off and stares at his valet's ass. Mendoza's ploy to have Rambo mat wrestle blew up in his face when it became apparent that the General had close quarters combat training. This was the kind of fall you'd show people to determine whether they could ever get into lucha, because the holds were so loosely fed, the counters so slow and the finish so inexplicably lucha, that I could see a lot of people thinking it's ridiculous. For the aficionado, the rhythm was near perfect (as Raging Noodles pointed out), and I honestly didn't bat an eyelid when Rambo took the fall on a roll-up submission move. There's a thousand ways to win a fall in lucha libre, but what really matters is what comes next. Villano came out his corner with a drop kick that caught Rambo high in the chest, and we got a nice slow motion replay of the bump and roll, and Villano following up faster than Rambo could react. Seventeen seconds into round two and the one fall advantage was gone -- seems unfair, but the whole of lucha libre is predicated on what is fair and unfair. Rambo threw the gentleman's agreement out the window to start the third fall, as well he should considering how many times he'd lost to the guy. Villano's selling in the tercera was pretty great, as he ignored the cut that Rambo had opened and focused solely on the pain shooting through his arm. There was a great shot of Rambo working the joint while Mendoza bleed into his opposite arm, his face buried as the blood found a way to trickle and escape. Mendoza waved off the referee and Rambo released the hold, but not before punching his shoulder. When Mendoza surfaced, it was like a drowning man gasping for air. He staggered around with blood seeping into his left eye and shit smeared all over him from when he'd been in the hold. Rambo likely had visions of taking whatever hair Mendoza had left, but Mendoza is a cagey son of a bitch. This was a great fall for the reasons that Raging Noodles spelled out, but what really impressed me was how well they paced it in terms of Rambo catching up to Villano's groggy state. Villano didn't just pop up and start taking Rambo to the cleaners, it started with Rambo taking whiplash bumps that knocking the stuffing out of him and proceeded at the pace with which Rambo bled. I don't know how many times I've seen workers throw it all away from this position, but not here. There wasn't a single moment where it looked like they'd undo all the good they'd done, not even when Rambo overtook Villano in the fucked-up stakes. In fact, I'm struggling to recall a hair match with a tercera caida as well paced as this. The stoppages were exceptionally well done and they even had the confidence to throw in a comedy spot where the referee looked foolish on a double knockdown count. The finish was awesome: Rambo kept coming at Villano with punches, but it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other. When Villano slipped free and Rambo kept walking towards the ropes and his cornerman, it was clear he was done. He didn't want the fight to be over, but like I said, lucha can be distinctly unfair. So there he was, hunched over and bleeding as much as any other worker in memory, and he had to suffer the indignity of Mendoza telling him to take it like man. And that's not the worst part -- Rambo lost the next hair match they had. Thwarted, again and again... That has to grate.

Pro-wrestlers don't get paid the kind of money that NFL players do, and even then a large number of NFL players wind up broke. It doesn't matter what opportunties you give a person, we're all perfectly capable of fucking up our lives. Even if you made pro-wrestling the safest environment it can be, people would still fuck up, just like you or I are capable of fucking up without the use of steroids or painkillers. The best you can do is provide deterrents, but at the end of the day it's up to the pro-wrestler to navigate their way through a wrestling career. Unfortunately, the difference between a pro-wrestler living to a ripe old age or dying young appears to be whether they're smart or not. The wrestlers themselves need wising up, because at the end of the day no promoter of any sort gives a shit about their talent. They're only interested in ringing as much cash out of you as they can until you expire. EDIT: And another thing, the fans have no bearing on what happens. Some dude downloading a wrestling match on his PC is not responsible for what happens in a wrestler's life, regardless of what comments or attitude he has about wrestling. To claim even partial responsibility is just a guilt trip.

Well, it always goes back to the same thing. Wrestling fans wanna have their cake and eat it too. I'm not talking about you specifically Dylan, but most fans want to enjoy the status quo without the guilt of knowing that someone else has died, so they'd never accept any radical change. Besides, it's all pie in the sky stuff unless the governments in Japan, Mexico and the US cared, which evidently they don't. Mind you, you have to wonder how much longer professional wrestling can actually last. It may be best if it just withers away and dies.

Just unionising isn't enough. You'd need a regulatory body and a licensing comission. If all you had was a union, McMahon would soon find a way to weaken the union's strength.

I wouldn't call it heroic, nor would I call it tragic, it's just a mess and has been since the economic bubble burst.

It's true that hair matches don't mean much these days, but I still think IWRG's booking is utter shit. A trios match one week, a revancha the next, then nothing... Guys win titles and lose them for no reason, apuestas have no build to them. Lucha booking has always been arbitrary at best, but if it weren't for cubsfan I wouldn't have a clue what was happening w/ this promotion. Granted, it's always been that way with IWRG but as you will see in our upcoming review of the Rambo/Villano III feud, at least they used to work hair matches properly.

Misawa was a wreck before he died -- couldn't stand or walk properly, smoke, drank, was constantly fatigued from going on the road and running his company at the same time, was under huge pressure from losing his major backer during an economic recession, and refused to take a medical examination because the finishing line was in sight, or so he thought. Misawa was in a situation that was difficult for him to walk away from and he chose to keep going against the advice of those who knew him best. A few months before he died, he visited his best friend in hospital who was recovering from cancer, and his friend urged him to get himself checked out. Misawa promised him he would, but never did. In January 2007, the doctors informed him of his neck injury when he was taken to hospital after that match against Morishima. Misawa knew the risks he was taking, but thought if he made it through the rest of the year he could step down at some point in 2010. Misawa was acutely aware of his health problems. He was also acutely aware of the industry's problems -- lack of regulation, no welfare system, poor medical support, no retirement schemes to speak of. These were issues he clashed with the Babas over and were at the fore of his decision to start-up NOAH, but at the end of the day, Misawa put his well being second to keeping his company alive. If Misawa had retired at any point in the last ten years, he would still be alive, albeit in constant pain. If he'd chosen to have neck surgery and take major time off, he would still be alive. But for a small company president with a thirty year mortgage and two kids to put through college, these aren't easy decisions to make, so I don't think it's right to judge. My point is that he was far from oblivious to the fact he was unwell, but like a guy who goes to the doctor and gets fair warning, he didn't take heed.

That's over-simplifying the issue. Misawa didn't die soley because of damage to his neck.

Dr. Cerebro vs. Suicida, hair vs. hair, 11/15/09 This was the most poorly booked hair match I've seen in a long time. There was no reason for these guys to be fighting, IWRG just threw the match out there like they usually do. The workers were given about a week's turnaround to have a hair match and there wasn't even time to have a series of low blow finishes like Policeman and Centella de Oro. Given the confines of what they were asked to do, it wasn't a bad match, but there wasn't a single bit of effort from the bookers. All year long, we've relied on a handful of good workers to provide us with entertainment but even they appear to be struggling. IWRG do a good job of dressing their frontmen in tuxs and having the editors go back, back and forth on cuts to make it seem like they're putting on a show, but they haven't given their workers shit to work with all year. Dr. Cerebro and Suicida falling out doesn't get the blood boiling on a week's notice, so what you got here wasn't really a hair match; it was a singles match where the loser lost his hair. There's a big difference, even if it appears to be lost on IWRG bookers. These guys tried as hard as they could to stiff each other on the punch exchanges, but it's a bit disheartening when tradition is replaced with modified spot after modified spot. Cerebro's old-school enough to know that you've got to take liberties in a hair match, but he's fallen prey to the idea that you have to modify the set-up to everything you do for the tens of people in attendance and the hundreds watching at home. The old-school approach to working a hair match was so simple, and so easy to pull off if you sold well, that it just seems like these guys are breaking their backs for nothing. Dr. Cerebro's been one of the top 5 workers this year, but he's no hair match worker. It wasn't so much that he didn't brawl -- at the rate things are going there won't be any brawling in lucha hair matches -- it was more a case that he didn't give Mike Segura anything to retaliate to. Segura tried, but it was difficult to spot where his grievance was. The reason there haven't been any great matches this year is because nobody's been bothered to work the second fall comeback. Even in the various Misioneros/Space Cadets matches that have popped up, there's been nothing tying the falls together. The attitude has been to get the first two falls out of the way and tack on the third fall which everyone knows is the one that counts. You might as well make them single fall contests if you're not going to use the structure that distinguishes lucha from other forms of wrestling. The highpoint of the match was a slick submission exchange that looked like it was cribbed from the Black Terry/Multifacetico match. I should've seen the writing on the wall at that point, but I'm dumb and wasn't expecting the seconds to get involved. It was the same rubbish as Terry/Multifacetico. Whoever's booking this shit, even if it's Terry himself, obviously thinks this little show number would be even better with dancing girls and a troupe of elephants. Ah well, the double tope spot from Segura and Freelance was pretty spectacular. Segura has the best tope in the business. Segura won and a minor dispute was settled. I wonder what Cerebro was thinking while he had his hair cut -- "Why the fuck did they book us in this?" would've been my first thought. That's a whole lot of bitching for what you'd probably call a three star match, but there was no effort to make this a great match. I honestly think as soon as Black Terry and Navarro are done, that's me done too.

I guess Dave was excited about the rating. It did something like a 43.1%. Everybody was talking about it the next day.

Riki Choshu aged dramatically between 1983 and 1989 and looks ancient these days. Not that it would really matter if any of these guys could work. If Flair and Hogan were 60 year old luchadores who could work a little, they'd be cool.