ohtani's jacket

BLACK TERRY VS. MULTIFACETICO, hair vs. mask, 4/17/08 Black Terry in a singles match. This has gotta be good, right? RAGING NOODLES: The opening video promo for this match makes me want to get a hold of all the Black Terry footage that's available on video tape. Even of stuff that doesn't look too promising, I have this impression that it will at least have one bright moment somewhere. Black Terry's like Anthony Mann, as he is able to overcome a lot of tough limitations and still be able to do create something compelling that's fun to watch. Terry is very aware of the obstacles in front of him and he sets out to craft an entertaining gritty show around the weaknesses he observes. Since Multifacetico did not inherit his father's greatness, this is the Black Terry show and it's an easy show to appreciate. It seems like in this decade, babyfaces from all around the world have gotten worse at being able to work the crowd and getting the crowd to believe in them. Multifacetico is a bit limited offense wise, but that shouldn't be a problem in a match like this. But what is a problem is that his brawling is way too similar to that shitty sort of brawling that one finds on the American workrate indie scene and the way Bret Hart brawls on the DVDVR NJPW set. I did appreciate that there were moments were he at least attempted to sell the beating he was taking, although I won't say it was great selling at least the thought was here. As usual, this match has some great touches from Terry, like I loved his pre-bell attack back firing on him and the way he sold it was great. The 1st fall of offense is the usual stuff you see in these matches, and it takes someone with great basics to be able to make it work. Terry has some awesome basic stuff, like his punches (he hit some great hooks throughout the match), his overhand slaps, chokes, and some fierce kicks to a downed opponent. The idea of the ending was Multifacetico's high risk maneuver costing him the fall, but the execution was rough and it came off pretty bad. The awkward finish also injured Terry's ribs, although I admit I initially thought the injury was part of the match since it made some of the later nearfalls a bit more dramatic. The 2nd fall has Terry using the objects around him to continue his beating and I really dug his use of a beer bottle to bust Multifacetico open. Since Black Terry knows what these matches are all about, we get some bloody mask ripping, biting, kicks to the cut and some more great punches. Saying Multifacetico's comeback leaves a lot to be desired would be a huge understatement. It's really bad to the point that you can't blame the audience for shitting all over him and his comeback. In the 3rd fall, in another one of those brilliant Black Terry moments, Black Terry splits his own eyebrow open on Multifacetico head in a really violent headbutt. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the exchange of submissions and finishers in the first half of the 3rd fall. I think a large part of why I thought it worked was the excruciating pain that Terry revealed on his face, as it ended up adding a lot more drama than it would have had otherwise. But everything from the point of when the seconds got involved to the finish was very annoying and it felt like way too much bullshit for this match. With an ending unfolding the way it did here, it's really hard to come away thinking strongly about such a shitty technico. But man, what a great gutsy performance from Black Terry, it's really hard not to admire such a hard working maestro. I wish someone like Blue Center was in IWRG, as I could see him and Terry putting on a great show together. OHTANI'S JACKET: This was like one of those Peckinpah films from the 70s where the studios wouldn't give him any money anymore, so he rustled it up some other way and set about shooting a film. It didn't matter whether he had a script or not, so long as he was shooting. Black Terry didn't have shit to work with here, but with a bit of blood, and by injurying himself, he turned this into a match. It may have been a B-grade match, but it was gutsy as hell. Terry did a far better job carrying Multifacetico than I ever thought possible and the first three quarters was Black Terry playing Warren Oates in Bring Me the Head of Multifacetico. Noodles has a point about Multifacetico, but he bled, and sold about as well as he could. He can't throw a punch, but I dug how every time he hit Terry, Terry would hit him back twice as hard. I'm kind of leaning towards Terry's injury being real. He was like a deadman walking through the final two falls. For fans like us, Terry was the obvious technico here, and while I thought this was pretty much great for the first three quarters, I completely agree with Noodles about the finish. The best thing you can say about this match was that it was violent. Terry beat on his man, there was a mini concession stand brawl, Multifacetico bled from a bottleling, Terry worked the cut, dragged his own carcass around and split open his eyebrow... what the match needed was a Peckinpah style death scene. The submission battle in the third fall was epic and one of the best things I've seen in lucha this decade, but I'd rather the tape had cut out than the shit that followed. In the end, we got the dramatic head shaving and the post-match promo where it sounded like Terry had punctured a lung, but a killer finish and this would've been one of my favourite matches of the decade regardless of how good Multifacetico was. As I keep alluding to, it was Terry directing an apuestas match. Workers don't get enough credit for authorship in wrestling, and I've gotta say I dug Black Terry's take on an apuestas match in 2008, bar the ending, which probably wouldn't have been necessary if Multifacetico hadn't been such a failure as a technico. But what do you expect from a guy who came out to an A*Teens cover of Mama Mia? A little girl was dancing since it appealed to her fucking demographic. I did dig Santa Esmeralda's version of Gloria at the end. If Multifacetico had been the slightest bit cool that would've been worthy closing music. If Dandy had won to that music, he would've told everyone to keep on having that party. Anyway, Black Terry fans will want to see this. Ignore the finish and pretend he met his end like an anti-hero.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2gsfg_ho...ld-be-lupus_fun

Well, don't ever ask Dana White to report on your health condition.

Rumour mill says it's diverticulitis, which if it requires surgery probably indicates that they'll remove the area of the colon with the diverticula. In other words, a partial colectomy.

Dr. Cerebro & Suicida vs. Oficial Fierro & Trauma I, IWRG Castillo Del Terror, 11/01/09 This year has seen a lot of sources for IWRG come and go as guys get their accounts suspended or burn themselves out on uploading every single bit of TV. Not that I'm complaining. Without these people, I wouldn't have seen any IWRG this year. Thankfully, a new source for IWRG's Sunday show has emerged and I am hellbent on enjoying it while it lasts. Man, it was good to see Dr. Cerebro again. I dunno if it's because I haven't seen IWRG for months but everything about this match was a welcome return. It started out with some fairly typical IWRG matwork where you work your way into some kind of stretched out pose, hold it for a while and reverse, but they wrapped each other up in more knots than a month's worth of CMLL TV. Possibly two or three if you discount Puebla. There was some early dissension between Fierro and Trauma I and it looked like they wouldn't get along for the remainder of the match, but Trauma bowed to the wisdom of Oficial Fierro and they ended up having more chemistry than their opponents. The last time we saw Trauma I, he was making a strong case for the most improved wrestler of the year, and it looks like he's gotten even better. His brawling has come along nicely; lots of good looking knees and back elbows as opposed to chest slaps. El Suicida is Mike Segura, long time boy of Robert Bihari. He was on hand to trigger the comeback and did an awesome tope that sent Fierro all the way into next week's TV, which may or may not be uploaded. Fierro was really solid in this match and gave one of the better Oficial performances I can remember seeing this year. Modern lucha involves a lot of orchestrated spots, so once have the patterns down you just need to make sure you bump well and time everything okay and you'll be all right. That's pretty much what the did here and the match had impetus. It was a good enough match that I was looking forward to the third caida. As fate would have it, it was the team of Dr. Cerebro and Mike Segura who fell apart. The spot where it happened was actually mistimed, but it mattered not since it led to the two of them fighting on the outside and a twin tope spot from Fierro and Trauma. Cerebro attacked Segura after the match and I'm desperately hoping that their hair match airs next week. After the match, there was an entertaining vignette between Yack (Jack?) and Oficial 911. I don't speak a lick of Spanish so it may not have been funny but it seemed amusing. Can't tell you how happy I am to have IWRG back and with it the possibility of maaaybe following something on a weekly basis.

Dave said he has at least 3 or 4 things wrong with him, at least 2 of which are known. I really liked the joke on DVDVR about people thinking they're Dr. House.

Blue Panther vs. Atlantis, La Copa Victoria final, CMLL 12/5/97 This was awesome. Twenty minutes of grappling with neither guy leaving their feet. Like a lot of lucha fans, I'm always on the look out for a pure mat contest. Most of the time, you get a caida or two of matwork before the match starts heading in a different direction, so to find a match like this is pretty rare. Searching through tape lists is a lot like digging for gold. You start digging in the wrong places and come up with nothing but dirt, but when you find a match like this it's like striking it rich. The match starts out with an amazing lock-up that's like two bulls locking horns. Atlantis works these awesome leverage spots from an armlock and Panther keeps trying to reverse into a dominant nelson position in what is basically a show of strength. Finally, they end up in the lock-up again and you know whoever comes out of the lock-up stronger will take the fall, because of the way the momentum is building. Mesmerising stuff and one of the best opening falls I can remember seeing. The whole time I kept thinking about how underrated Atlantis even among aficionados. Raging Noodles touched on this point recently. I think it's because I'm used to seeing him as a classic luchador in trios matches, so I forget what a good mat worker he was. Blue Panther brought out the best in Atlantis' wrestling ability, but at the same time, Atlantis is one of the best mat opponents that Panther's ever had. I haven't seen their 8/91 match in years, but this particular match is as good as any mat contest I've seen. Watching the slow motion replay of the first fall submission is a lot like watching the replay of a sumo bout, where you see exactly what it was they were doing coming out of the tachiai (the part where sumo wrestlers charge at each other and collide.) The fact that it's a Fujiwara armbar makes it all the sweeter. The second fall has the same arm lock and Atlantis does a series of armdrag takedowns into a crucifix armbar. All of this is ridiculously good. The armbar isn't as over as it is on all the New Japan we've been watching, but fuck it if Blue Panther doesn't reverse it about as well as you can in a lucha mat situation. Panther starts working some more traditional lucha holds, including an awesome "rolling surfboard variation" which Atlantis sells extremely well. The great thing about this match is the consistency in their approach. Atlantis keeps going back to the arm because it's working for him, whereas Panther is eager to get better position so he can start working from the top instead of from underneath. And just so I can avoid any of that 90s rubbish about limbwork and psychology, Panther is such a maestro that he doesn't target any limb in particular just the nearest opening. The reason for this is because he's a fucking great wrestler and not some mindless drone. I hadn't seen Panther work like this in a while, and just so you know, I'm immediately high on him again. I actually fibbed a little when I said they don't leave their feet. What they don't do is use the ropes. And it's a two fall match, which means the cut out the segunda caida and just give you one big long tercera caida with all the momentum shifts you could hope for. It's not until the end that they start working the rolls-ups, but it's not too bad. The finish is a bit staged, but you expect that when a guy loses in straight falls. The ego takes a battering whenever this happens in lucha and you've got to make it look a margin of error. Both guys were buffing hard down the stretch and you could tell they were working hard without that second break between falls. The upshot of that was some great selling towards the end. I managed to find the RSPW report for this match and the guy watching it said: "This was a good match, but too old fashioned. There were no dives, no brawling, just old fashioned wrestling." It's funny how values change. I sure as hell wouldn't mind if every match was like this. I dunno if I'd call it an old-school bout myself. If it had been wrestled in 1987, they would've worked the ropes more and had more flat back bumps. This was similar to the style that Santo, Casas and Felino were working at the time, pinching stuff from the juniors work they admired. Ray Mendoza was on hand to present the Copa Victoria, and considering he's my own personal god of lucha matwork it was all good to me. Just a great match from a great year for 1997. I really thought the old '97 mine shaft was barren but it struck gold again.

Well, we'll have to leave it at that. I hear what you're saying.

I'm just saying that Dave's a guy who likes joining the dots between wrestling and other types of promoting. I doubt anyone else is as interested in Roller Derby as Dave is, it's just one of his quirks. Most people act like Dave & Co. saying MMA=pro-wrestling is trying to legitimise pro-wrestling in some fashion, but I don't see how Cornette saying MMA is doing a better job of promoting itself than pro-wrestling speaks well of the pro-wrestling business. Unless people think pro-wrestling carnies are taking credit for MMA's success. Carnies know how to sell a fight, or at least they think they do, and the way I read it, Cornette is saying that MMA is doing a better job of selling fights than wrestling is, which is pretty much the case. MMA has eaten in to a share of the WWE's market that it probably wouldn't have done if the WWE had compelling characters like The Rock or Austin. However successful MMA is, and however many buys it's doing, people are watching the shows on name value and it doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with the actual fighting. Not when it comes to the casual fan. I can accept that we're all mammals. If you wanna turn it into a MMA/wrestling analogy, I'd say apes are to humans what MMA is to pro-wrestling. Wasn't the fight supposed to be Evans/Jackson? I'm no expert but Evans wants to position himself as a light heavyweight title contender and didn't think the fight would help him move up the rankings. Plus it was on short notice in England. Mike Brown doesn't like getting boo'ed? Is that supposed to be the antithesis of a pro-wrestling heel or something? I'm sure that a lot of fighters have motives other than money, but they're pro-athletes and pro-athletes care about money. How is that different from the thousands of other martial arts dojos around, many of which are Olympic sanctioned sports? There's a difference between training and working out at a MMA dojo and entering the world of professional MMA. It's never existed in an amateur sense apart from the various disciplines that make up the mixed element of it. Can't see it ever making its way into the Olympics either. My argument isn't that fighters don't take it seriously. Most of them live and breathe it. My argument is that in trying to differentiate it from pro-wrestling people are legitimising it too much. It's still a developing sport.

Still, you can't deny that they're all birds. They're simply different types of birds. What's the one thing that old-timers always harp on about? Money. It's always about money, money, money. The thing most wrestlers are proudest of is the gates they drew and the thing that makes them the most bitter is that they didn't make any money for themselves. Everything else is secondary. Likewise, fighters are in MMA for a payday. I doubt many of them would do it as an amateur sport. Pro-wrestling and MMA is business first, everything else second.

They're all types of promoting, which is why Vince gets delusions of grandeur about branching out into other types of promoting. What Dave and his buddies are saying is that from a business point of view MMA=pro-wrestling, only real. I'm not sure if Dave really believes that MMA and pro-wrestling are the same thing in terms of content, I just think he's big on the business parallels. People who find that annoying tend to not be that interested in MMA and think Dave spends too much time covering it in the WON, but Dave's a guy who finds comparisons between wrestling and Roller Derby. You can see where Dave is coming from on the whole MMA thing, though obviously it's driven by the fact that he's a big MMA fan. It's possible to make connections between Vince and Don King, Vince and P.T. Barnum, etc., yet when people compare wrestling promoting to something else everyone gets a little fidgety as though it's not possible (unless it's porn or something of lower worth.) If you ask me it legitimises MMA too much as a sport. MMA has yet to have much of a global reach outside of the internet and if anything is just as hung up about what it promotes as wrestling. Vince didn't want to promote rasslin' and tried carving out his own niche in the promoting business. MMA has tried moving away from its barbaric image to present itself as a legit sport. Nevertheless, matchmaking (booking) occurs and is carefully controlled. The idea is to draw a gate and sell PPVs. It's the same basic idea. If a result doesn't go according to plan, they try to make money out of whoever wins. Booking plans change at the drop of a hat in wrestling anyway. It's obviously a distinct difference but the method of making money is the same. Well, I think PRIDE came pretty close to having angles at times. They definitely had feuds and promos. On the other hand, rivalries, whether they're real or played up by the company, were around long before pro-wrestling. I don't think the content is the same, I just think they're similar types of promoting. In Japan, I think it was a complete offshoot and they couldn't help do works. In the US, I think it's managed to stand on its own two feet. But until it becomes a recognised sport, I think it's firmly in the same category as wrestling. If WWE were to die and UFC never became a mainstream sport, I think it would essentially be the new pro-wrestling and provide Dave with his livelihood.

Read the full quote and explain why Cornette is wrong: Bill Dundee said running a circus is the same as running a wrestling promotion. Running a MMA outfit is the same as running a wrestling promotion. It's the promoting business pure and simple. Whether Dave takes that too far is up to people here to decide, but way too much is made out of Dave's opinions. It doesn't mean shit whether Meltzer thinks MMA is pro-wrestling. He's argued the point many times and I never saw the problem with his reasoning. It's the people who can't get over point number five that confuse me.

It is the same thing.

Can you ask him about his trips to England?

Máscara Año 2000 vs. Mogur, mask vs. mask, 9/23/88 This is the other match on the Viva Lucha Libre Part II commercial tape. You've got to love the old school CMLL entrances. There's a bunch of kids at ringside to begin with, hoping to get Máscara Año 2000's autograph or something. Moguar has the most nonchalant entrance possible and the kids run back to their seats as the two start hitting each other. I remember Jose being keen to see this because he reckoned Máscara Año 2000 was a good worker in the 80s. It was reasonably okay, but so badly mic'ed that it seemed like they weren't getting any heat. That can't have been the case, because after it was over the arena floor was packed. I don't think I've ever seen such a big crowd at ringside. Nevertheless, whatever heat they got sounded like background noise on tape and that hurt the match because it was one of those slow, blow for blow matches where they work at a moderate tempo. It was a fairly simple match, actually. There wasn't much in the way of brawling or mask ripping, and no real blood that I noticed. No bullshit, either. They tried pacing the third caida like the all-important fall that it is, but the slowish tempo didn't go well with the poor mic'ing. Basically, they didn't do a hell of a lot wrong, it just seemed like they were going through the necessary motions, partially because of the structure but largely because we couldn't hear anything other than cat calls. The most interesting thing about the match was the finish, which was a fairly nasty looking backdrop driver by lucha standards. Mogur sold it like death afterwards. He was still unconscious when the ref unmasked him and photographers stood over him taking snapshots as he lay on the canvas. He slowly came to, and the crowd were bobbing to-and-fro trying to get a look at him. The whole thing was kind of downbeat and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

El Dandy vs. Pirata Morgan, hair vs. hair, 9/23/88 So, here it is -- the elusive hair match. Only available in Japan and at a rental store to boot. This will have its grand unveiling on the DVDVR Lucha set, so you'll have to wait until then to see it. I know a lot of people are dying to see it, so I won't tell you too much about what happens, but if you've ever scanned through lucha records and let all those untaped matches kill you, then have I got a present for you. Where it rates in the grand scheme of things is up to the voters to decide, it was hard enough just getting it. I've actually seen it once before, and took my sweet eff time getting it out to people, but it's in the can and ready to go. Consider this a teaser: Dandy blades from the get-go. He's still in his gym sweater when Morgan attacks and blades on the outside. Morgan knees him in the back and he spends most of the fall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. There's blood in his eye and shit splattered all over his chest. It even trickles down to his waist. Morgan gets a decent handprint out of it and licks it off his palm. They have these awesome punch exchanges where Dandy follows up a Morgan right with some flush uppercuts, but Gran Davis keeps hooking Dandy's arm and Morgan plays them both for suckers. Morgan has a field day in the opening minutes. The trigger spot for Dandy's comeback is awesome. I don't wanna give it away, but it leads to a flying headbutt right into the sternum. Morgan sells a foul on a Dandy leg trip, and Dandy is incredulous when Davis threatens him with a DQ. Lots of heavy breathing and finger pointing. Morgan bleeds from his eye socket in the third caida and the left hand side of his face is a mess. The third caida is the most tape inspired fall I've seen from El Dandy. He does a whole bunch of Dynamite Kid spots, including the standing version of the diving headbutt where you sell the impact afterward. Somebody tell me whether that was a regular El Dandy spot. To be honest, the selling wasn't as good as in later Dandy matches and they only needed half the amount of spots, but there's always a temptation to crank up the tercera caida. I wouldn't have minded so much if the transitions hadn't been there for all the world to see. Guess I'm used to a slower rhythm from these guys and not as many spots. I'll give you an example: after a swandive tope from El Dandy, he met up with Pirata Morgan in the ring and transitioned into a German suplex. It kind of made me want to watch that '89 title match with Emilio again to see whether juniors inspired El Dandy holds up. On the other hand, you never really know whether it's you or the match. A different day and I might go along with the nearfall blitz. I rewound it a couple of times and found some nice little touches. With so much New Japan on the brain, I think I'll watch it another day. Can't spoil the post-match but it wrapped up pretty well. The crowd gave them money, so don't let my two and a quarter falls worth of enjoyment curb your enthusiasm.

Never really considered him anyone I would ever wanna watch.

The best thing about the set is reappraising guys like Choshu, Inoki and Yatsu, who were always "ugh" guys for me but awesome in the context you've provided. I figure I'll have a top 30 that I love and maybe 155 matches I'm indifferent to, but so far I'm enjoying this more than I expected.

Perro Aguayo vs. Máscara Año 2000, hair vs. mask, AAA Triplemania, 4/30/93 I guess I could be watching better stuff than this, but I'm into these bullshit mainevents lately. I don't know what's come over me, because I actually thought this was pretty good. To be fair, it wasn't a difficult match to work. The layout made it difficult for them to fail: a bit of brawling, a couple of quick falls, outside interference from the rudo corner, a smidge of controversy over the referee El Chocolate Amargo -- pretty much a baker's receipe for how to work a hair vs. mask match. Mascara Ano 2000 scrapped his way through the fight, Perro Aguayo made anguished Perro Aguayo faces and both guys were disfigured by the end. Perro juiced first, but Mascara Ano's was the sicker of the two. Jake Roberts was in attendance for this show, and you can just imagine Jake cutting a promo on this match: "It never ceases to amaze me what the human mind can come up with. I mean you think of the whole concept. Hair vs. mask? The man that wins this match is not gonna be the man that is the best wrestler, the best athlete. It's gonna be the man who will do anything. The man that will take that extra step. Do just a little bit more than anybody else. Maybe sacrifice a little bit more than anybody else. Now me, it never ceases to amaze people what I do after a show." Máscara contra Cabellera is an interesting wager. I mean you think of the whole concept. Lose your hair and it'll grow back eventually. Lose your mask and you have to live with that for the rest of your career. Makes you wonder why a rudo would ever put his mask up. I guess that crop of hair is just too tempting. The key to making it work is a drawn out struggle in the third. Since the match structure is almost always the same, the quality depends on how well you can sell. Great workers work a 50/50 caida where the match could go either way. Lesser workers are given a helping hand by the booking. I was surprised by how little bullshit there was in this match. Perro had a couple of highspots -- his tope and his La Silla (a Lou Thesz Press turned into a dive) -- but most of the fall was spent wriggling around on the mat. Timing is important here, especially if you don't have a lot of moves. For a match to hang in the balance, you need the workers to slowly come around. Perro Aguayo's childhood was straight out of Los Olvidados. The guy started working when he was five years old. He's not lying down and everyone knows it. You've got to kick out of his best stuff and sell for all you're worth otherwise there's no suspense. The longer this went, the more it seemed like Mascara Ano 2000 would find some avenue of escape. Perro Aguayo fans had to be squirming in their seats over some of these nearfalls. Most crowds have a fair idea of when the end is nigh, but the workers took it a beat beyond. Actually, they took it several beats beyond, and I would've preferred a tighter finish, but they had a face saving finish in mind. Mascara Ano was low blowed into the history books and erupted into a fit of rage. Mind you, post match antics are half the fun. Mascara Ano 2000 and his brother ripped the shirt off El Chocolate Amargo's back and pulled him around the ring like a hog tying contest. Mascara stalled for as long as he could as the suits started making their way to ringside. It was one of those great unmaskings where the rudo tells everyone to go fuck themselves. In New Zealand vernacular -- you're a pack of arseholes and you're not bloody gawking at my face. And off he went. Entertaining end for the Mask of the Year.

EL DANDY VS. ANTIFAZ DEL NORTE, hair vs. mask, Monterrey, 9/17/00 Antifaz del Norte goes to the dance with El Dandy. RAGING NOODLES: I think my positive reaction to this match has a lot to do with when it occurred. If this match had taken place in 1989-1992, I know it wouldn't have stood out amongst the great stuff that was taken place at that time. No doubt it's a flawed match but in 2000 and after years of El Dandy having 4 minute matches on WCW Worldwide, this feels like a blast to watch. El Dandy does a good job of working Antifaz over and getting some nice juice. To get the match heated, Dandy brings out some quality biting, good punches, headbutts, and mask ripping, and it was very effective. Nothing complex, but one doesn't look for complex things in a simple match like this. It was kinda surprising to see Antifaz attempt to make a comeback at the end of the 1st fall but I dug Dandy quickly cutting him off and the execution of la casita was pretty neat. In his youth, El Dandy had these really athletic and beautiful looking bumps that were breathtaking to watch. He had incredible form when he took a back body drop and I've never seen anyone else do it as good as him. It was very graceful and aesthetically pleasing to watch him bump around when he was at his athletic peak. But at this point in his career, the much heavier El Dandy has bumps that were closer to a huge sack of potatoes being thrown in the air and it landing with a hard nasty thud. Drastically different but the bumps were great and had a lot of impact. In a way, they had this "realistic" feel to them and felt more painful than his earlier bumps. In one of the previous entries, the issue of bullshit and overbooking was discussed. Zumbido was involved a lot in this match, and at times it felt like it was just too much. Zumbido handing weapons to El Dandy was a bit of a distraction, but I did like the payoff of Zumbido eating a huge shot with the fridge top. Also, one of the major spots, which was Antifaz headscissoring Zumbido off the apron, was really embarrassing and horribly executed. Although it should be pointed out that it was Antifaz's fault and not Zumbido's. Antifaz had some other awkward moments throughout the match, and one of the cringe worthy moments involved El Dandy attempting to lock the figure four leglock a second time. Everyone could see this counter coming a mile away, except Antifaz. El Dandy was just there bending over forever until he finally just rolled himself up for an inside cradle attempt. Pretty lame job from Antifaz considering this was supposed to be a big match for him. In a career that has matches against Satanico, Casas, Navarro, Azteca, and Charles, this is a minor work in the career of El Dandy. But on El Dandy's side of things, this was a very good performance out of him and it was pretty enjoyable to see Dandy lead a lesser worker through a big stip match at this point in his career. OHTANI'S JACKET: Dandy looked fantastic here. Honestly, when I turned this on, I thought I was watching something from earlier in his career. This just makes the Dandy booking situation all the more mysterous. This being Monterrey, it didn't take long for Antifaz to bleed like a stuck pig. The brawling was on par with the better stuff from Guadalajara, but if you squint hard enough it looks like it's taking place in 1989. Monterrey always gives you that sort of atmosphere because of how poorly lit Arena Coliseo is. The cameras can barely follow the workers into the crowd, and when they do it's all about guys beating the shit out of each other in the dark. Add to that the fucked up camera angles, line crosses and mismatching shots, and you have all the production values you could ever hope for. You wouldn't want them to shoot this clearly, even if they could. It's Monterrey, pretty much a refuge for broken down luchadores and blood stained canvas. I hope to God they never pump any money into it. The match was all about the deciding fall, as most apuestas matches are. It seemed to me that Dandy was working more along the lines of his middleweight days than the light heavyweight he ballooned into, presumably because of his opponent. Antifaz was a youngish guy whose mother was the promoter. He had a good body and the moves that really move 'em, but at least he tried working old-school. The headscissors spot was fucking awful, and Zumbido looked like a fool for standing there waiting for it to happen, but Antifaz made up for it with the kind of dive that gets people gigs in CMLL. Could've done without the unnecessary pose, though. Dandy was kicking it old school, pacing this sucker like the matches he worked on his way up. There wasn't as much care or attention as in the past, i.e. not as many minor details for us to gawk at, but I have no idea why CMLL didn't snap Dandy up to lead their guys through a good match for a change. As RN pointed out, Dandy was a guy who could feed Antifaz del Nortes stuff they couldn't figure out for themselves. CMLL has fuck all guys like this and that's been one of their big problems from a work standpoint. Obviously, there were other factors at work that put the kiabosh on seeing weekly El Dandy, I just think it's a damn shame. He was good for another run here. All told, it was a decent match. The finish kind of sucked, but we're not talking about a match with a lot of big ideas.

Good for Shane. What outside ventures is he interested in?

There's a handheld of it, which is no doubt the match on Dan Ginnetty's list. I also have vague memories of a commercial tape for the first Kandori/Saito match.

No, but I've encountered enough people on the internet that it wouldn't shock me to see some wrestling fan determined X female wrestler was "now a whore" and decided to kill her. Semi-related point... I read this article when I was trying to remember Schaeffer's name -- http://www.people.com/people/archive/artic...0120867,00.html This raises an interesting point: I'm not sure it was ever like that in professional wrestling, and thus much harder for people to separate the person from the wrestler they play in a promotion. When people were threatening Dump Matsumoto and her family during AJW's heyday, I don't think they were thinking about her as Kaori Matsumoto, a young woman who played a villain on television. It wasn't until after she retired that she became a TV personality and known performer. Before that, her shit was getting censored and thrown off the air in some places.

I'd say actors would be more weary of crazy fans than professional wrestlers. There's never been a Rebecca Schaeffer case in wrestling as far as I'm aware.