ohtani's jacket

Bob Backlund vs. Ernie Ladd (WWWF, 10/23/78) This was a fun bout. Ernie Ladd was a big boy. I don't think he gets the credit he deserves a worker. Every time I watch one of his matches, I always come away thinking he was a solid big man. Backlund was a first rate opponent, but Ladd held up his end of the bout. I miss the days when a taped thumb was controversial. He got plenty of mileage out of that gimmick. This was great big man/little man stuff that had me wishing Bob had worked with Andre. That would have been a sight to behold. Bob lifting Ladd for the atomic drop was a great spot.

I think you can almost guarantee that Bret has never watched a second of El Dandy footage, but it was a great promo, and let's face it, for most WCW fans a job guy calling themselves "El Dandy" was amusing. The segment of NA fans who still think Dandy is a punchline are the same folks who listen to podcast reviews of old WWF & WCW pay-per-views and never expanded their interests in wrestling beyond the stuff they grew up on. I don't think it's really in Bret's character to make fun of job guys. I think he is legit when he says he had a lot of respect for those guys. I doubt he has much time for lucha, but I believe him when he says there was a kernel of truth to the promo he cut. The Larry Z thing is unavoidable. You don't know what you don't know. Larry's biggest success was in the WWF and AWA, and they weren't about to mention that on WCW TV every time he appeared. Instead, he was that living legend commentary guy, who was kind of annoying and feuded with Bischoff. What people didn't realize at the time was that he had an all-time great feud with Regal in '94. That was what was truly overlooked.

Bret actually cut a second promo about Dandy in '99. He's claimed in shoot interviews that he had nothing but respect for Dandy and it seems to gel.

Angel Blanco Jr/Babe Face/Hombre Bala vs. Milo Caballero/Monarca/Centurion Negro (Monterrey 1991) The Babe Face vs Caballero beef continues, and it is awesome! I was hoping we'd get some Hombre Bala in this footage. Extremely underrated worker. The tecnicos had more shine in this match than the previous trios, partially because of the narrative but also because they were working with a super base in Bala. Centurion Negro, in particular, got to stretch his legs and work some quick exchanges. Blanco was a bit raw at this stage and made a few mistakes, but Babe Face and Bala were like brothers-in-arms. They did the classic spot where the rudo and tecnico swap masks, which the crowd loved. It seemed like Negro's mask came off by mistake and he had to frantically put it back on in time for the finish. If that was a deliberate spot then it was a superb effort. There was a stupid but amusing spot afterwards where Bala and Babe Face attacked Blanco because they thought he was Centurion Negro. Blanco sold the shit out the mask exchange by conducting the post-match interview while still wearing Negro's mask. Fun bout.

Mascara Sagrada/Atlantis/Panterita del Ring vs. Negro Casas/Jerry Estrada/MS-1 (Monterrey 1991) This was a vintage Casas performance. He spent most of the first fall working over Panteria's arm and then they spent the rest of the match having awesome exchanges. Their exchanges here were much better than in the mano a mano. In fact, they made the mano a mano seem tame by comparison. It reminded me of Casas' performances against Ultimo Dragon, and is an absolute must-see if you're a Casas fan. The supporting cast chipped in with some cool stuff. Estrada took some big bumps and MS-1 also flung himself about with abandon. Sagrada nailed his big spot at the end, and Atlantis was Atlantis. Make sure you watch the video until the end as there's some fun stuff including Jerry Estrada taking out the television interviewer while trying to escape Atlantis, and the crowd drenching them with their drinks, and Casas grabbing Panteria by the holes in his mask to respond to his mic challenge. Exciting match.

Orton was screwed out of a world title shot at Taboo Tuesday, but his consolation prize was to main event the show. I guess that's better than being shunted down the card. This was never going to be a great match, but they tried their damnedest to make it a memorable one by gigging. In one of the bloodiest years in WWE history that I can remember, the pair of them cut deep and had fairly sick looking crimson masks. That was about the only thing that made the bout memorable except for the embrace at the end which I suppose signaled that Evolution was coming to an end. JR tried to shill Taboo Tuesday as one of the most memorable nights of his career. King had a better take by saying he doubted the concept in the beginning but was won over by the end. The trouble is the WWE hasn't had a great match on PPV in a while and their TV matches aren't being pimped either, so something isn't clicking.

Did the fans really vote for this matchup? I thought this feud ended with Hell in a Cell. Michaels hurt his knee during a match on RAW, so Triple H spent most of the bout beating him down while Shawn made Shawn faces. They teased a miraculous victory at the end only for Batsita and Edge to interfere and cost Shawn the title. Edge has apparently turned heel and was foaming at the mouth saying, "it should've been me!" Maybe it should have been. This would have been a decent RAW match, but it was underwhelming as a PPV bout. Mind you, this was a bit of a B show, so I guess that didn't really matter. JR's feigned indignation at Shawn losing was almost as bad as Shawn's acting. Apparently, things pick up again when Batstia starts feuding with Triple H, which can't come soon enough.

This was such a neat title match. I love Zumbido, and I've enjoyed watching Averno's rise as the next breakthrough talent. It was cool that they given so much time, and were able to work a modern style bout that was fresh and captivating. I kind of regret being dismissive of Averno in the past, but you live and learn. This was a big moment for him and it registered with me having watched him pay his dues for several years prior to this.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise, and something I thought I'd never see again -- a great Kawada match! That was most due to a brilliant performance from Nishimura than anything Kawada did, but the end result was a great fight. Nishimura came across like a fired up Hiro Matsuda in this bout, which was a treat. This may have actually been the best match from September, and the first thing Kawada has done to rival a Kobashi match in forever. Low key one of the Japanese MOTYCs as well. I don't really follow Nishimura religiously, but for a guy with his skill set, he was exceptionally good at big time fights. Did Nishimura ever wrestle Ishikawa? Because if he did, it might just blow my mind.

Bob Backlund vs. Ivan Koloff (WWWF, 8/28/78) This was a good match, but to be honest, it kind of bothered me how they kept going back to holds after a brief spurt of offense. It created a stop-start rhythm that was hard to enjoy. The holds were slow going and not the most interesting mat work I've seen in a Backlund match. I would have preferred a shorter, more frantic bout. However, there's only so much I'm going to complain about in a Bob Backlund vs Ivan Koloff bout. The flurries of offense were worth the price of admission, especially Backlund's feats of strength.

Dr Wagner Jr/Blue Fish/Babe Face vs. Milo Caballero/Centurion/Monarca (Monterrey 1992) I was stoked to see the legendary Monterrey wrestler, Blue Fish, show up in this footage. He certainly didn't disappoint, but it was Babe Face who stole the show here. The tecnico side weren't a particularly talented bunch, but they reacted well to the rudo's actions and were able to dish out some decent looking shots. And boy did Babe Face stir the pot. He had this awesome bit of beef going with Milo Caballero, who made great fired up babyface faces. The match ended with the tecnicos taking turns slapping the shit out of Babe Face. Fun times.

Negro Casas vs. Panterita del Ring (Monterrey January 3rd, 1992) One of the exciting things about this new Monterrey footage is that we get see Casas matches from his UWA days. Up until now, footage of Casas from this time period has been fairly limited. This wasn't a great match, but it was awesome to see Casas in his prime working a very Casas-esque mano a mano with Panterita.

I'm not sure if anybody knows the complete truth behind the Hashimoto situation. Dave reported at the time that it was because Choshu found out that Hashimoto was negotiating to appear on the 12/23 NOAH show. Hashimoto was unhappy with the way he'd been treated during the Ogawa feud (and who can blame him?) His plan was to rebuild his career by forming a sub-promotion named NJPW ZERO then wage a war with NOAH. He had Fujinami's backing for this, but Choshu was against it because NJPW was still committed to co-promoting with All Japan. A lot of people thought the dismissal was a work, but Hashimoto wasn't the only one to leave New Japan around this time. In typical Inoki fashion, Antonio promised to back ZERO-ONE, just like he'd promised to join the original UWF, only to pull out at the last moment. This led to open enmity between the two that even extended to people believing Inoki mocked Hashimoto after his death. Choshu and Hashimoto hated each other and had a long history of hostility. It seems a lot of the talent were fed up with both Inoki and Choshu at the time. It all started going downhill when Ogawa shot on Hashimoto. Hashimoto lost face over that. Then he tried to force management's hand by claiming he'd retire if he couldn't beat Ogawa and they booked him to lose anyway.

The minis stuff from '96-97 is among the best lucha matches of the 90s, but for peak VIrus I would still go with the World Lightweight title run.

Blue Panther vs. Panterita del Ring (Monterrey 1991) This was a decent mano a mano bout. I'd rather watch Panther work a title match than do rudo shtick, but he did a respectable job of putting Panterita over. The finishing stretch wasn't perfect but the crowd was happy with the result. Happy to have another Panther singles match available from this era.

Love Machine/Dandy/Panterita del Ring vs Blue Panther/Emilio Charles Jr/J Estrada (Monterrey 1992) Run of the mill trios match with no standout performances. I was hoping for more from the names involved, but I've seen enough Monterrey to know that's always a crapshoot. There was still a lot of heat between Love Machine and Blue Panther, and I suspect that if I liked that feud more that I'd be more enthusiastic about this. They seemed to be setting up a match between Emilio and Panterita del Ring based on their interactions. Dandy was barely involved in the match, and the finish was weak yet typical of Monterrey.

Here's a bonus for you lucha fans -- another Santo vs Perro match! This was suitably violent and featured some solid brawling. They used the steel steps inside the ring, which I didn't love but was able to overlook in favor of the blood and hatred. The ref was involved in the finish (it's Monterrey, after all), but nobody's getting a decisive win at this stage of the feud. More than anything, it was great to see another singles match between them.

CMLL returns from the Olympics break with this banger. This feud has lit a fire under the promotion and they have become the best promotion in the world now that the WWE has cooled off. Park has been a disappointment in CMLL, but his matchup with Ultimo has been excellent and they tear it up here (literally!) Perro vs. Santo didn't even rate an honorable mention in the Observer awards, but there were footage issues, a chunk of it takes place in Monterrery, and it's lucha. It's easily a top three feud for the year.

This was a pretty crappy brawl that went all over the arena, outside the building, and into the men's urinal. I hate this type of wrestling. The in-ring action was just as weak. It's unclear how this promotion is trying to position itself in the market. I'd prefer something closer to old-school Florida wrestling than an ECW retread.

There was one brief exchange that gave a glimpse of the incredible potential of a Yoshida vs. Bolshoi match, but this was more of a standard Joshi tag match than a mat clinic. Akino vs Yabushita was pretty cool.

I enjoyed this a lot. In a sense, these Kobashi title matches are just as formulaic as WWE matches, however the slow pace and the incredible attention to detail almost makes them feel like novels. There's so much packed into these matches that you wind up getting more of them than any other style of match. I had my "Taue is the best of the pillars" phase years and years ago (it seems everyone goes through one), but I lost interest in him over the years. It was genuinely heart-warming to see him give such a great veteran performance in this match. Love that dude. Kobashi may have edged Eddie for WOTY given that Eddie is being dragged down by the Angle feud.

Did you watch the Yoshida/AKINO vs Bolshoi/Yabushita tag from 2004?

I love me some Dean Malenko.

The comments you're quoting are outdated, but I don' believe Steve Wright was in full Wonder Kid mode in the Maxine bout. Apprentice, to me, implies a boy or girl who has left school to learn a trade, and Wright is still very much in that phase at the time. You don't see a lot of teenager wrestlers in the States, so I was using boy apprentice in quotations to distinguish this type of bout from the norm. Outside of Mexico and All Japan Women, it's not that common to see teenagers wrestling in the ring, and while it's semantics, I don't think the teenagers that appeared on ITV had passed their apprenticeship yet.

Bob Backlund vs. Pat Patterson (WWF, 9/24/79) This was more of a traditional back and forth WWF cage match with both men desperately trying to escape. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Patterson created the template for how to work a WWF style cage match, since he was no doubt involved in booking the cage matches I grew up on. I'm not really a Pat Patterson guy. He's more of a Buddy Rogers type, which isn't my thing, but if you like that type of worker (and I figure most people do) then this is a consummate performance. Bob Backlund vs Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka (WWF, 6/28/82) I've never really gotten a feel for the phenom that was Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. I remember when he made his return to the WWF in the late 80s and them hyping him up like he was a big deal, but you really had to be in New York at this time to appreciate the impact he made. Personally, I've seen so many Polynesian wrestlers in pro-wrestling that Snuka isn't that unique to me, and I come from a country with a large Pacific Island community to begin with, but there's no denying that Jimmy Snuka is the reason why people jump off the top of the cage in WWF cage matches. It costs him the match here, as it so often does in WWF cage matches, but it looks spectacular. Bob sure loved falling out of the cage door backwards. It's a cool looking bump but he ended so many of his cage matches that way.