ohtani's jacket

I'd like to know about his trips to New Zealand, especially the match against Peter Maivia that outdrew Ali.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas, UWA 1/12/92 This is the famous "no sound" match that was wrestled almost completely on the mat. (Well, famous to me.) The more UWA Santo I see, the more I feel like I'm watching a completely different wrestler. This was the absolute peak of Santo's work and the closest he came to wrestling like his father. It's becoming harder to watch latter day Santo knowing he was once like this. The creativity and inventiveness in this match is staggering, such as the camel clutch spot with the fighting, twisting & turning. Working one hold into another, faking a match yet having reall skill. Actual skill. Knowledge of holds and how to apply them. Here Santo was a worker who could literally do anything. I think it would surprise people to see Santo slip in the kind of shots you'd expect from Euro workers pre-97, but I guess he'd been traveling to Japan and was a bit awed by some of the work he saw over there. This was a little Japan-ccentric for my tastes, as even the submission variations showed some outside influence, but in terms of matwork and guys really working in the holds, this was a great little match. The only problem was that it was over too soon. For that reason I don't think it was as good as the Espanto Jr. match. Nor did I think it had that special lucha vibe (i.e. a match you could only see in Mexico), but if you like Stephen Regal or Ishikawa and BattlARTs, for example, this was a similar sort of hybrid concept. Think of it as the best match possible in the Hamada UWF style. I still think Santo and Casas never had the blow away match they were capable of, but lucha tends to not have blow away matches, just incredibly satisfying ones to appease the endless appetite of its fans.

Bestia Salvaje vs. Kato Kung Lee, hair vs. hair, 3/13/92 I can't get over what a good worker Bestia Salvaje was in 1992. This was a minor match, a veteran losing their hair to continue Bestia's push as a top rudo, but it's hard to imagine anyone getting a better match out of Kato Kung Lee this late in the game. Without the mask Kato looked like a regular Joe. He reminded me of a bit part actor in an old movie, the kinda guy you could cast as a newspaper man in one film and a heavy in the next and if he had a speaking line he'd get paid a little extra. What I'm trying to say is that within the mask he was never gonna draw, especially in that outfit, but Bestia gave him a fair shake. It would've been easy for Bestia to nab a scalp here, but I guess he had the dreaded respect for the business as he made Kato look like he still had deadly hands. The interesting thing about Bestia was that he was a new breed of rudo. He had the kind of attention to detail that all the great rudos have, but he also had moves. A fucking boatload of moves. And he liked to use them too. Normally I'd think that was out of place in lucha, but somehow Bestia put it altogether. Some of his other trappings weren't too good for his health, but I wish he was still around to impart some wisdom to today's move happy rudos. Later on he became a sleazier rudo with the women and the suits, but here he was a hard working "youngster" who you figure just happened cross over onto the wrong side of the tracks and be broken in by some rudos. I'd love to know what the story was with his nose. Legend has it W.C. Fields got his nose from constantly fighting with other street kids. I wonder if there's a similar worked story for Bestia. [He was actually 30 here and had 10 years experience under the belt, but lucha is deceiving like that. I always forget that Fuerza made his debut thirty years ago and so on.] The match is nice, though nothing outwardly special. Kato had his head shaved while lying on the mat, which I don't think I've seen before and his second, Ciclon Ramirez, was wearing a fucking awesome get-up and taped Kato's wrist between rounds. Again with the details. That has to be the greatest thing about lucha. Almost every exchange was picture perfect "neat." The more Bestia you watch from '92, the more you realise how disappointing the Dandy vs. Bestia title match was. Dandy completely peaked with the Casas feud. Bestia would've overtaken him if he'd been perhaps a bit more charismatic or a tad less ugly.

Don't know if Dave goes into further details in upcoming issues but the shoot was never released to the public. Still have never read the reason for that. On her website she said it was because of a career change (i.e. going to Japan.) This was during the "No Cigarettes, No Drinking, No Men" era of AJW.

Sangre Chicana vs. La Fiera, hair vs. hair, CMLL 7/2/93 Ah, 1993 CMLL. AAA was doing big business at the time, and if this was CMLL's way of rolling with the punches, I have no idea why they ran such slow, plodding matches. Not that I'm complaining. Sangre Chicana is just about my favourite wrestler for doing absolutely fucking nothing and getting heat for it. He spent the entire match measuring La Fiera with punches & walking off into the crowd to jaw with the public. He had a fair bit of support from rudo fans in the front, who clued him in to Fiera dragging his bruised and battered sides toward Chicana. Chicana working the rib and kidney area was awesome and made it all the sweeter when he'd slip one in on Fiera's chin. Guys don't work the body enough these days. That's a fact. Fiera, who had turned a short while before this, wasn't the greatest technico to ever mount a comeback, but Chicana sold everything like it just broke his nose or sent spasms to every corner of his body. The highlight of the match was Fiera's all or nothing tope. Chicana didn't catch it particularly well, but Fiera swan diving over the top rope was pretty spectacular and looked tremendous. There was only gonna be one loser after that type of move and the barber wasn't three quarters finished before they launched into an extra round. They brawled away the way to the back with more intensity than they showed in the fight, so either Chicana was fucking around too much or they wanted to go further round the horn. No blood and not a hidden gem, but 1993 CMLL is always worth a look. They worked this really long lock-up at the start that was an interesting counterpoint to AAA in itself.

I wonder if Dave still has that 1988 lucha tape.

Fuerza Guerrera vs. Gallo Tapado, hair vs. hair, 3/8/91 Gallo Tapado was a character wrestler from the 70s whose mask was "a rooster's spur around the eyes and a line crossing the mouth to feign a belt from the charro's hat whom made roosters fight in los palenques, making him an excellent character, since sometimes in the ring [he] jumped joining his ankles like sharping his knives as roosters do in a fight." (Credit: lucha wiki) He was 48 years old here and practically a 30 year vet, so there wasn't much pomp. It was a familar story, I guess, an old guy looking for one last pay day. He kinda reminded me of a Villano in the way he moved and his ability to hook on a submission, so I imagine he was a pretty decent worker in his hey day. He was actually Fuerza's maestro, so Fuerza came pretty damn close to losing his mask. GT brought some sort of live chicken or cock to ringside, which Fuerza beat him with, and then the tape started splicing between the first and second falls and looped back round again. It was a slower, more methodically paced match than the usual Fuerza special, but as always he added a little something extra to each of his bumps and I don't think I've seen a guy who was better at breaking a cradle or submission attempt. GT was selling his arm at the end, using the strap of his tights as a sling. I don't know if it was real or not, Huracan Sevilla did the same thing the night he lost his mask, but if it's a work then it's a pretty awesomw way to bow out. A small, somewhat interesting piece of lucha history.

Pierroth vs. El Supremo, mask vs. mask, 12/08/92 This was a return to greatness for PIERROTH. I fucking loved this. -- I should note that the version I watched was letterboxed (which it made it seem like a rare piece of lucha footage) and for some reason the sound quality was better than usual. Arena Mexico never sounded so good. At some point in 1992, Pierroth turned technico and was a huge hit with the crowd. Supremo was an older luchador with a classic look -- huge chest, beautiful mask. He had that graceful way of moving that you don't see much of anymore. It was beautiful to watch, especially how he'd whip his man into the ropes. Great hands. He wrestled as he might have done whenever he was a technico, but broke that code of conduct. What I loved most was how simple and succinct it was. The heel ref Gato Montini gave Supremo leverage to cheat and Sangre Chicana was fucking brilliant hitting Pierroth with the towel and picking his spots to punch him. Pierroth was choked in the ropes, busted open and had his mask stretched across his face, giving him plenty of opportunity to work his magic. It was your basic pearl habour of a charismatic technico, but Pierroth was awesome in the role. The crimson mask. The hair sticking out the top. The biting & tooth and nail scraping. His second got taken the fuck out of the equation too, which ruled. Pierroth used the force of his personality to fight his way back into the match. I loved the way he worked out of a corner and it was brilliant how they sold their hands after punches or chops. Great start and end to the year for Pierroth.

Pirata Morgan vs. Masakre, hair vs. hair, 2/28/92 When I first saw this match I was in awe of Pirata Morgan. Like most people I saw it as a big time performance from the best wrestler in the world. This time I'm not so sure. As awesome as Pirata was, he could've worked the match with one arm tied behind his back. Watching Los Intocables, it's clear that Masakre lacked focus. When you're facing a guy who isn't a great brawler, you've gotta have him fight. You've gotta make him work harder than he usually would. Despite the blood it never seemed like Masakre was kicking his ass, and in a match like this there's a problem with Masakre looking piss weak. The guy didn't have any great charisma. He was never gonna beat Morgan so bad he didn't care if he killed the guy. He only knew to stagger and punch, walk around and hit someone. Still Morgan should've taken the fight to him. It felt like he took the soft option. It didn't help that PIERROTH was a constant focus on the outside. The camera was on him way too much in this match. He was brilliant, but if he were a manager he'd be killing his guy in the ring.

1. Los Destructores: Tony Arce/Vulcano/Rocco Valente vs. Love Machine (Art Barr)/America/Mano Negra Los Destructores were really good in this. It's a bit difficult to tell one from the other, but they worked well as a trios. Plenty of good "routine", particularly their two and three man bumping act. The highlight was Mano Negra taking all three on at once in a beautifully coordinated sequence. Los Destructores have a neat trick they do where they sit on someone's lap to dissuade the technico from diving. The only dive in this was America (El Pantera) launching a springboard senton off Mano Negra's shoulders. Just a nice match. Even Art Barr was solid, particularly on the mat. I'm not declaring myself a fan yet, but of all the guys who made it south of the border he got it better than most. 2. Los Infernales: El Satanico/MS1/Pirata Morgan vs. Los Intocables: Pierroth Jr./Jaque Mate/Masakre PIERROTH disappoints again It started off like the awesome Rudos vs. Rudos feud you'd expect, but there was such a huge gulf in class between Los Intocables' half-assed brawling and the way Los Infernales take a man apart. In particular, I loved the way they treated Jaque Mate like he was a piece of shit, trying him up in knots and delivering a trio of headbutts, before pressing him over the top rope and getting rid of him completely. The match fell into a lull before Satanico turned it on like a man possessed and fought all three at once. Pierroth lost his mask a bunch, the finish saw the usual challenges. A woman in the crowd thought it was the best thing to happen all year in Arena Mexico, but I was waiting for Pierroth to crank it up. 3. Los Brazos vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr./Solomon Grundy/Vampiro Canadiense This was the worst Brazos match I've seen. The highlight was Porky bringing a small pig with him, literally. 4. Bestia Salvaje vs. Huracan Sevilla - Hair Match. This was an extremely good match between a youthful looking Bestia and the former Huracan Ramirez knock-off. I was expecting this to be an early Bestia carry job, so I was a little surprised by how well Sevilla did. He was so cocky and sure of himself in the introductions, with a leather jacket and the classier ring girls in his corner, and they worked a smart heat ploy involving the heel ref, his second Norman Smiley and the crowd. This was UWF Bestia, just absolutely rock solid as a base. His stuff always looked stiffer than most workers in Mexico and I think it was because of his accuracy. Even off a shoulder block, he'd look at where the technico landed before making his charge into the ropes, and in the second fall when Sevilla was throwing wild punches, Bestia's cut offs (punches to the back and kicks to the calves) looked right on target. It helped that Sevilla was bumping and selling like Satanico, but even Salvaje's drop toe hold into the submission finisher was class. The match opened up beautifully in the final fall, with Bestia working his man from pillar to post. The ref screwed Sevilla throughout and sweet, sweet payback followed. Bestia bleed and took head first bumps off the ring post. El Brazo and the ref tried to spare his life and the whole thing was almost perfect lucha. To top it all off, Bestia got incredible height on the back body drops oover the ropes and took Sevilla's topes with full contact. They took it home with one of the better finishing stretches you'll see in lucha, a mix of the ref helping Bestia cheat and Bestia taking it to the top rope with either ungodly planchas or huge missed sentons. Bestia's not with us anymore, and he never did his body any favours, but fuck it if he ever held back. He even made tucking your knees to counter a senton look like it wasn't co-operated, though I should reiterate that Sevilla's selling was great as he swam backwards on the mat to sell it. It was one of those matches were never guy would quit and sold in a believable, convincing way. From the huge dives at the end to the ref LEAPING over a cradle attempt when he realised Bestia had the hold, the last fall was awesome. Neither guy could put the other away and they just duked it out. I can't even begin to describe how awesome it was when Sevilla sold his leg giving out on him only to monkey flip Bestia all the way over the top rope. Bestia just soared. And the finish was controversial, beautiful and so much more of a punch to the guts than the usual rudo way out. Sevilla giving his hair to both Bestia and the ref was the finishing touch to a classic. One of the great matches of the whole '89-92 period.

1. Los Brazos vs. Pierroth Jr./Masakre/Jaque Mate This was a rehash of their January match. If you were expecting them to kick on and ratchet it up a notch like I was, you'd be greatly disappointed. There was some amusing stuff, like Masakre and Jaque Mate pin pointing the pressure points on Porky's gut, but it was too low on the card to deliver. 2. Ultimo Dragon vs. Blue Panther - Non-Title match It sucks how much of Blue Panther's prime was wasted on being a fall guy for shitty workers. Ultimo Dragon didn't attempt to work a lucha style and this was the lowliest of junior matches. 3. Atlantis/Solomon Grundy/Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Cien Caras/Mascara Ano Dos Mil/Universo Dos Mil Is there anything more awesome than the Rayo vs. Caras feud?? Rayo brawled in his Mariachi get-up and threatened the rudos with a PISTOL, I kid you not. This was pretty wild for a match that featured a bunch of loose, theatrical workers. Rayo shoved the ref into the front row, some fan got caught up in the brawling and took a bump with the rudo, Universo 2000 had all sorts of novel ways to work Solomon Grundy over in the corner, sitting on his shoulders and twisting his head... even the finish was inexplicable as a second Solomon Grundy did a run in. Double Doink. 4. Octagon vs. Fuerza Guerrera - Mexican Middleweight Title This was a poor man's version of their "as close to a classic with Octagon as you can possibly get" 11/91 match. Comparing the two is like Richie Rich and a street kid. Sure Fuerza did some cool shit with Octagon, but there was too much heat on their seconds, Cien Caras and Konnan. With the amount of cross cutting they did between cornermen, you knew an angle was on the cards. Caras looked like some asshole dad or football coach here and his low blow of Octagon was pretty classy, especially when a woman leapt to abuse him as Caras wagged the finger, "no, no, no." But it led to one of the most hideous, bare chested displays of ring clearing ever witnessed. Konnan looked like a prize dick. Fuerza provided one last classy moment when he used Konnan's shirt to choke Octagon out, but the whole thing left a sour taste in the mouth.

1. Ciclon Ramirez/La Pantera II/Aguila Solitaria vs. Arkangel de la Muerte/Guerrero de la Muerte/Guerrero Negro Fun opener. It kinda reminded me of those travel shows where they do a feature on lucha libre. They usually focus on lucha as a live show, as though you've got a front row seat. CMLL TV doesn't give you the same pick-ups from ringside, but this felt like a live match. They could probably fall out of bed and have this trios, but it was good stuff from guys I don't usually write about. The technicos outwitted the rudos through superior technique, leaving them all at sea and bickering with one another. There were the usual appeals to the crowd about who the bigger dickhead was, before the rudos took it out on the technicos. It all led to the night train where Ciclon Ramirez, the greatest practioner of the tope, gave the crowd the type of souvenir those TV presenters never receive. I can't think of anyone who did the tope harder or faster. He took out the end of three rows. 2. Ringo & Cachorro Mendoza/Mogur vs. Kung Fu/Hombre Bala/Sultan Gargola For some reason I get a kick out of Ringo Mendoza, even if everything he does looks soft. I even got a kick out of his tag partners. Something about the whole thing screamed babyface to me, I could just imagine them doing muscle poses for the lucha mags. They weren't too bad actually, since they had Hombre Bala bumping and stooging for them, something the great man deserves a lifetime achievement award for. These matches usually have an odd man out, but it wasn't the Gargola guy. Kung Fu looked RAGGED. I'm not a fan of Kung Fu gimmicks, but that motherfucker Octagon stoooole the Los Fantásticos gimmick. Anyway, the maskless Kung Fu was supposed to be a pint-sized, pissy little heel who used nunchukkas and foreign objects. Dunno if it was a Pena gimmick, but he looked like a wiry old man. 3. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Emilio Charles Jr. vs. El Volador/Blue Demon Jr./Misterioso Good Lord, Fuerza Guerrera's purple and yellow get-up was awesome. This was the type of match that would soon crossover into AAA, I'll spare you my thoughts on how much better it was in CMLL. Misterioso had shocked Fuerza for the NWA World Welterweight title the month before, so his whole purpose here was to make Misterioso look like a dick on national television. The rudos won in straight falls, which'll hurt any technico's pride and sure enough the post-match was wild, especially Fuerza hitting a takedown that spilt through the ropes. The best part came while Fuerza was giving an interview at the end. As Fuerza demanded a title shot, Emilio propped Blue Demon Jr. up behind him for an awesome right hand from Panther. BD went down. As an aside, Emilio was insane. It's no wonder his body is shot. He took by far by the biggest bumps on the show. I thought Pirata Morgan was crazy, but Emilio didn't give a second thought about catapaulting over the ropes. Jeepers. Pierroth used to be the same way too, until he damn near killed himself and then he didn't bump anymore. After that he was a little stiff in the way he moved, but he made up for it by being a rudo extraordinaire... 4. Los Brazos vs. Los Intocables (The Untouchables): Pierroth Jr./Masakre/Jaque Mate If there was ever a trios carried by a rudo personality, it was Los Intocables. Los Intocables were PIERROTH. He couldn't move very well and wouldn't bump, but he knew how to punch a man. Just as Satanico would punch different parts of the body, Los Intocables used all sorts of ways to hold a man down while Pierroth rearranged the guy's face. The three on one beatings in this match were awesome, especially when the Brazos spat in Pierroth's face and got nasty fish hooks in return. The catch to it all was that Pierroth was absolutely chicken shit when he didn't have a 3 on 1 advantage and since this the type of fight where Porky ditches the comedy and is stiffer with his spots, Pierroth was soon running scared. Man can the Brazos can take care of business, especially when Porky's focused. They ripped Pierroth's mask off completely, the ultimate insult for a guy who hooking the mouth only moments before. He returned with a new mask and a shit lot of attitude on the house mic, there were challenges galore and Porky wanted to go rounds with Jacque Mate. He even feigned kick boxing. As a brawl it never got off the ground, but in terms of the amount of mayhem that can stem from one man, highly entertaining.

I'm not sure who they're comparable to, but Muto's a hell of a lot more popular in Japan than people make out. I don't really understand where the Muto was a poor draw thing comes from.

If you go to the rental store, there's a whole row of Muta/Muto VHS tapes and a handful of Hashimoto tapes. Even the smallest video shop has Muto videos and no Hashimoto tapes. You can even rent the movies he was in. He still gets his face plastered on pachinko machines, he's on TV regularly and in TV dramas. I don't think Hashimoto was ever as mainstream as Muto, regardless of how much people read into numbers.

Muto was more popular in Japan than Hashimoto and you can never discount that from Dave's opinion.

Seems like a pretty common form of eulogising to me.

Atlantis vs. Blue Panther, Arena Mexico 07/11/08 This was a match to mark Atlantis' 25th Anniversary in wrestling. Atlantis was one of the great technicos, but he doesn't hit the small shows much, so we don't get to see him work an older style. Some of his Guadlajara stuff is alright, but you know the small show mastery I'm talking about. Fitting then that Panther was chosen to be his opponent, since they had the most pure of title matches in 1991, a match which more than any other shaped the way I think about lucha libre. The match was nothing special, but satisfying enough. Neither guy is a patch on what they used to be, but both take pride in their work. I wanted 20 minutes of matwork, but they had to move it along for the Arena Mexico crowd. Panther was there to job and Atlantis to take his bows. Might've been better somewhere else, but Atlantis was clearly moved by the whole occasion. Some tenor sang for him at the beginning and after the high note Atlantis lept over the ropes to embrace him. Perhaps the best they can do these days.

Brain death is not a diagnosis doctors make lightly. One doctor alone can't make that diagnosis. So either he was misdiagnosed or the family misunderstood what was happening to him. The idea that the old bugger hung on for longer than the doctors said he would is comforting for the family and pretty harmless. As far as misdiagnosis goes, the current diagnostic criteria for declaring brain death can lead to misdiagnosis and is one of the reasons why some medical professionals oppose apnea testing. Apnea testing is nasty.

Seems to me like it's just part of getting a break, making it, whatever you want to call it. I dunno if Big Dave showed any potential back then, but you'd have to think it worked out better for him in the long run than if he'd stuck with those power plant guys. Perhaps the power plant guys fucked up, but there's a pretty long line of agents, talent scouts, promoters and producers who've done the same. As far as wrestling goes, NJPW didn't want Kawada. Liger bummed his way to Mexico to get a gig. AJW rejected Ozaki and Kansai. Megumi Kudo was a kindygarden teacher before breaking back into the business. Picking talent's not an easy thing to do, even when it's your job. Nobody gets molly coddled in other walks of life, so I'm at a loss to how people think wrestlers should be trained.

I don't see what's so bad about this.

More of a heads up than a review. If you've never seen the Villanos/Brazos masks match, it was uploaded onto youtube a few days ago. It's not that easy to watch, because of the low tape quality and the guy playing with his camera functions, but it's a big match with an incredible atmosphere. The third fall is a great lucha brawl. You don't get a great look at the dive train or the finish since people are standing, but you do get to see the wrestlers leave the ring, which is footage you rarely ever see. The Brazos make a quick exit, while, one by one, the bloodied and battered Villanos stop to acknowledge the crowd, as they step through the ropes out onto the apron. You have to squint a bit and miss a lot, but it's pretty much worth it for moments like that.