ohtani's jacket

Man Dave banging Debbie Malenko is a great story. They ought to be the bookerman.

Most fans aren't aware of it, but we are. So people need to be honest and say, "I know wrestling is fucked up, but I like it and can't stop watching," just like people know porn isn't good, but keep watching it without any concern for the actor's welfare or how shitty their life may be. We've now reached the point where people a wrestling fan is selfish, if we weren't already there considering we mainly watch it for free.

Wonder why someone is shooting on you in the 21st century? Respond by beating the shit out of him? I don't know what the protocol is for something that hasn't happened in over a century. I'm talking about accidents. If the average person was kicked in the face and broke their orbital bone, they'd hit the deck like a sack of potatoes. And they sure as hell couldn't hold a broken neck in place. However severe dojo training may be, it increases pain threshold & makes people tougher. Some trainees find dojo training easy, others struggle and are punished a lot. People who can't hack it runaway. The description about their daily life didn't make me blink. For years people have been praising Japanese workers & Japanese matches and now the system that trains them is horrifying? Harden up. Full-contact sparring is not brutal. The dojo system is open to abuse, just like wrestling schools in the US. I'd rather a dojo system that weeds out people than a fly-by-night school that cons them. Someone on DVDVR said the banana story is a "legend has it" story. Who knows if it even happened or how often, let alone whether it's an institution... I know Matt was careful about rumours & sourcing/cross-checking stuff, but if you believe everything you hear Jaguar Yokota had her head shaved because she got pregnant, needed to have an abortion and was punished by the Matsunagas. Or Nancy Kumi was a man-hating lesbian, who was raped by a client (possibly yakuza) in a hostess club. These rumours exist in Japan because the world of Joshi puroresu is alien to them & the idea that women could go without men too tantalising. And the rumours about the NJPW involve sexual acts of some sort. How surprising.

If you can't take a punch you shouldn't be in the ring. Seriously. What are you gonna do the first time you get hit for real?

They usually run away. I don't think guys getting punched is a big deal. If you enter a dojo you should expect to get hit and beaten. A lot. Beating someone to death is criminal & those wrestlers should have been prosecuted, but it was hushed up, swept under the carpet, to the point where you can't find any information on it in Japanese. The sodomy & urination is the type of thing I'd expect from guys like these. They're jocks, basically. The problem is violence begets violence. A lot of Japanese wrestlers come from broken homes, had abusive fathers or no father at all. They're angry & channel that anger into violence. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a shitload of domestic violence as a result. And the pattern of violence and humiliation (degradation) repeats itself. If your senpais beat the shit out of you & humiliate you, only strong-willed people break that cycle. A certain degree of violence towards trainees is part of training (and it's pussy to suggest otherwise), what's in question is the motivation behind that violence. Are you beating the shit out of someone to toughen them up, or because you want to break them for some reason?

Matt's a good guy & I'm glad he's getting published. I know for a fact he worked like a mofo on this.

I agree that inner conflict plays a part in wrestling narratives, and if a wrestler is good at selling or acting you can see that struggle play out. I also agree that bigger moves lead to greater climatic action, provided there's enough pressure. One of the reasons Japanese wrestling is popular is that matches go to the end of the line; a type of final stand, where the big move comes from some inner reserve. However, I don't think fighting spirit has much to do with winning or losing. I suggest you watch the anime Ashita no Joe for more insight into this. What I disagree with is the idea that inner conflict is the basis for all wrestling narratives. "Story" in wrestling is based on personal conflict. It takes a hell of a lot for a wrestling match to reach the level of inner conflict. It requires more than a hard, physical match. Your average match simply doesn't have enough at stake. As for variations on formula, they're fine and good, but first you need to master the form. A lot of young workers borrow shit from here, there and everywhere, from guys who spent years "mastering the form." You have to understand the form. otherwise it's like reinventing the wheel.

Some quick thoughts (haven't had time to read the whole thread): -- Good topic. There hasn't been enough written about this, largely because the standard of wrestling criticism is weak. -- Wrestling has a lot of "Story" elements, but doesn't tell great stories. A story goes something like this: a character has some desire. In pursuing his desire he faces greater and greater obstacles. The greater the obstacle, the greater the pressure, the more is revealed about his character. Wrestling does a good job with characters. The characters have desire. They pursue it & in good matches the pressure & obstacles mount. But a story is supposed to reveal "true" character, a revelation that changes the protagonist in some way. This is where wrestling falls short. Unless the significance surrounding the finish is dramatic in some way (retirement match, mask vs. mask match, heel or face turn, upsets, the odd title victory), the characters never change. If the characters don't change, then they're archetypes & it's not a real story. WWE, for example, is full of archetypes & not real characters. Rey Mysterio, Jr. is always the underdog & Cole is always babbling on about the heart and soul and determination of Rey Mysterio, Jr. His character never changes & WWE storylines get old because they lack character motivation. -- If you're looking for story in wrestling then the best you can hope for is some type of arc. In a great match, the character (even if they don't change) ought to be in a different place at the end than he was in the beginning. In that sense wrestling can play off the emotion of winning and losing. If the wrestler is good at acting or selling, you might even classify it as a character piece. All wrestling really needs is great acting and selling to create a sense of story. The best matches have narratives -- some kind of theme. -- What I look for in wrestling isn't stories, but rather pay-offs. Wrestling is good at creating set-ups (angles, feuds, promos), but all too often it lacks the payoff. Wrestling is shitty at blowoffs. -- Wrestling is a live performance. Sometimes adlibbed, sometimes planned and rehearsed. Sometimes booked well, more often not. There's no retakes and no redrafts. Each performance is like a first take or a first draft. You can't expect too much. I don't think it's anywhere near being the purest form of storytelling (that would be oral storytelling), but it is direct & interactive. -- Regardless of how well wrestling tells stories, people should look for "story" in wrestling. If sportswriters can do it, so can wrestling fans. There was an apprehension created surrounding looking for story that wasn't there, but the people who shouted loudest about that knew fuck all about storytelling to begin with.

This is kinda unrelated, but I read a quote from Kawada on Taue where he joked that Taue was from the country and only worked hard when the cameras were rolling. Baba apparently loved Taue, but was frustrated that he didn't work a tenth as hard as Kobashi and would rather go fishing than train.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Psicosis, AAA 5/3/95 There was some talk over at the surviving Smarkschoice board about whether this is any good. MJH mentioned that "at other times (especially the matwork and the finish) some of the execution is just really, really poor" and that "for a full singles match, Psicosis and Santo were having a bad night together." I thought this couldn't be right, but after a dozen sendspace attempts, I gotta admit -- stock's going down. Whenever people used to doubt Psicosis, I'd always argue the case for his lucha work, not only his bumping & catching, but the hair, the mask, the whole persona. His execution was never the greatest, but it fit the out of control, recklessness of his style -- the baseball slide off an armdrag, throwing his hands in the air before catching a dive, intentionally slipping on the apron... It was a trainwreck style. I like performers in wrestling. Anyone with a semblance of creativity. Psicosis played to the crowd & thus I thought he was a good worker, but having seen this & Psicosis/Juventud Guerrera vs. El Volador/El Mexicano (awful), he's looking more and more like a guy who was lanky & awkward. This is a match that's been pimped at various stages for having great matwork, or rather, for having matwork (i.e. the lucha matwork we love.) You can't have a lucha title match without matwork. AAA strayed about as far away from that as you can, but what matwork there is isn't great by lucha standards. By lucha title match standards, it's exceptionally poor. Whether it's Santo or Psicosis' fault, I don't know. It is what it is. MJH claims Psicosis is "horrid" on the mat, but whatever the case, they only got one spot to work -- the Santo headscissors. The rest of the time they either slipped or dropped the hold completely & the second fall was a mess. I wanna blame the AAA style for being flashy & making workers look crap, but they couldn't even work a surfboard spot without Psicosis having to balance with one hand on the mat. Now I don't have the most analytical mind for watching matches. I don't pay attention to stuff like transitions because it takes me out of the rhythm. I generally go on overall impression. The September Psicosis/Rey match had execution problems, but it was OK because of the shape of the falls and the overall arc. What I'm looking for here is a good two-fall shape. What I think you'll find is good dives. This match has two of the best topes I've seen from Santo. MJH is confused as to why rudos usually get up before technicos on a dive, and I didn't have a very good answer for him, other than it's a suicida type spot. The seconds come over and wave their towels & basically the rudo gets up because it's a common transition into his dive attempt. Sometimes they get a little lazy with it. Psicosis actually sells it pretty well. The dives more or less salvage this match. It would be wreckage otherwise, and not in a crazy Psicosis kind of way. It saves the rhythm in any case, since it picks up when Santo is going full throttle through the ropes. I'm pretty convinced that Santo never had a great singles match in AAA. Given how great Santo's singles stuff is from UWA that says a lot about the style. Now I'm wondering if Psicosis is the embodiment of that style -- all flash and little to show for it.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Espanto Jr, mask vs. mask, 8/31/86 This is a classic Monterrey bloodbath, but the best thing about it is seeing Santo as a young luchador. There wasn't any semblance of a traveling act yet. It was like the match unlocked a period in Santo's early career where he didn't have fixed ideas about working; where he was still searching for the best way to bump and sell & make face comebacks. The Santo roadshow is a great roadshow. Many times I've thought, "Here we go -- same moves, same patterns, different order," yet been surprised by how great the match is. If it's not the greatest traveling act of them all, then it's certainly the most enduring. But this was different. It was like watching old Santo films & getting half a clue to the kind of worker senior was. I may be overreacting due to the fact I just saw this, but I'd go as far as saying it's the most interesting (El Hijo del) Santo match I've seen. It hit me from the beginning that I've never seen Santo grapple like he does here, or sell a bump with an arched back in such a flailing way. Match is a tribute to their seniors ( ), with the usual mask ripping & blood of a wager match. It's not the bloodiest Monterrey brawl, but there's plenty of visuals of bloodied masks & tuffs of hair. It pretty much smokes Santo/Casas from 7/87. Santo/Casas is a great sprint; Casas is magnifico & it's a joy to watch, but hold-for-hold this match is tough to beat. Stakes are high and they really do look like El Santo & Espanto grappling. The camera work gives it an edge too. It's shot from a single camera at ringside, but the guy knew what he was doing. Your average Joe can't hold a camera like that. He got some great pick-ups, especially a shot of Santo kneeling in front of the ringpost, trying to pull himself together between the first & second caida. A bunch of kids come over and pat Santo on the shoulder. It's an awesome scene that would be lost to replays ordinarily. It gives it a raw documentary feel. What you do miss, however, are Espanto's reactions. The match is shot from Santo's corner, so it tells the story from his perspective. Given who's losing, that's a bit of a loss. There's a few jump cuts as well, but nothing too bad. If you're gonna drop the mask, you might as well do it in a Monterrey type setting & hope you have a great match. And that's exactly what they did.

I have nothing but negative things to say about the future of Japanese wrestling, but honestly the coverage has never been that great to begin with.

Pirata Morgan/Gran Markus/Ulises vs. Popitekus/Atlantis/El Dandy, 05/28/89 Wow, this wasn't good... I was surprised since 1989 El Dandy, Atlantis & Pirata Morgan is what hooked me on lucha in the first place. It was almost technicos v technicos, complete with matwork. When it comes to lucha matwork, I'm as big a sucker as the next guy, but this was... middling. Javier Cruz v. Jerry Estrada, hair vs. hair, 10/20/89 For the life of me, I can't figure out what other people see in Jerry Estrada. If you ever wanted to see a wrestler work a match from their lizard brain then this is the match. If I were Cruz, I'd be scared for my safety. You never know what the fuck Estrada's gonna do next. It's like watching a method actor work with an old school Hollywood type. Consensus says this is a great match, so you should check it out for yourself. This is the second or third time I've subjected myself to it, and it's bad. So very, very bad. Estrada's in a stupor from the beginning & can't do the simplest of moves without his brain wiring his extremities. Cruz may have been just as tanked, but he was never the type to take a match by the scruff of the neck. In a sense, I admire him for trying to sell such shitty, slow, botched offence, but the finer points are lost. Estrada is grandiose. If grandiose means showing up to a match all fucked up. Atlantis vs. Emilio Charles, Jr, CMLL Lucha Libre 1984 OK, a match I liked... There's no way of knowing for sure, but this felt like a new kind of lucha. It had an old school build to it, in that there was more emphasis on winning each fall (including working your man over far more than in later lucha), but instead of grounded, leverage-based matwork, they did a lot of awesome fast-paced exchanges. You forget how much of his game Atlantis shelved, or indeed how quick he was... and Emilio was an awesome worker in the 80s. This was the best showcase of 1984 Atlantis I've seen. The kind of match where he reminds me of Lizmark. Given it was a year or less since his debut, credit ought to go to Emilio for being a new school rudo. It would appear that these guys were part of a generation who were shaping a new kind of rhythm in lucha.

I got it from Jeff Lynch. I've never seen it uploaded anywhere. Unfortunately I don't have it with me, otherwise I'd try to be a patron saint.

Here's a reference list for people looking for somewhere to start w/ lucha. It's not a definitive list, but ought to get you hooked. 1. Atlantis vs Blue Panther, 8/9/91 2. El Dandy vs Negro Casas, 7/3/92 3. Angel Azteca vs. El Dandy, 6/1/90 4. El Satanico/El Dandy/Emilio Charles Jr. vs. Atlantis/Javier Cruz/Angel Azteca, 5/13/90 5. Los Infernales (MS-1, Satanico & Pirata Morgan) vs. Los Brazos, 11/22/91 6. Bracito De Oro/Cicloncito Ramirez/Mascarita Magica vs Damiancito El Guerrero/El Fierito/Pierrothito, 10/3/97 7. Cicloncito Ramirez vs Damiancito El Guerrero, 1/7/97 8. Trio Fantasia v. Thundercats, (Masks vs. Masks), 12/8/91 9. Ciclon Ramirez vs Felino (Mask vs Mask), 7/9/93 10. Pirata Morgan vs El Faraon (Hair vs Hair), 11/16/90 11. El Hijo Del Santo vs Brazo De Oro (Mask vs Hair), 1/13/91 12. El Mariachi vs Blue Panther, 10/30/94 13. Ciclon Ramirez vs Javier Cruz (Hair vs Hair), 6/10/94 14. Atlantis/Brazo De Oro/El Dandy/Mascara Magica/La Fiera/Negro Casas/Shocker/Ultimo Dragon vs Black Warrior/Dr. Wagner Jr./El Hijo Del Santo/Felino/Kevin Quinn/Satanico/Scorpio Jr./Silver King, 4/18/97 15. El Hijo del Santo vs. Felino, 7/4/97 16. Rayo De Jalisco Jr. vs Apolo Dantes, 5/31/96 17. Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera, 11/1/91 18. Mascarita Sagrada vs Espectrito I, 3/12/94 19. Silver King vs Apolo Dantes, 6/23/95 20. Dr. Wagner Jr./El Hijo Del Santo/El Texano/La Fiera/Mascara Magica/Mr. Niebla/Shocker vs Black Warrior/El Dandy/Felino/Mano Negra/Negro Casas/Scorpio Jr./Silver King, 3/28/97

Gran Apache vs. Oscar Sevilla, 3/19/00 Gran Apache is a favourite of a lot of people these days, which doesn't surprise me as he's over 40 & all the best guys in Mexico seem to be over 40. I tried getting into the whole Apache family saga. It seems like a pretty cool angle (apart from the baby being scared out of its wits), the only problem is that Billy Boy sucks. Apache, however, is quite the worker. So I sought out a technico who might not suck as much, and here you have it -- Super Libre in the rain. I also watched their hair match & was amped to see it when the clowns started fighting, but it didn't pick up until the third fall & this was much better. I wasn't so interested in them fighting in the rain, I just thought it was a decent Super Libre brawl. Apache is agile enough to catch all the pretty boy stuff young guys like to do in Mexico and work the junior-esque spots, but compact enough to throw a pretty good punch & I'm sure he'd work circles on the mat if young guys weren't so terrified of the mat these days. Anyway, his blueprint was all over this. I wasn't too sure what they were trying to package Oscar Sevilla as, but he fought through the overbooking to prove himself as a technico who could stick up for himself. Match was a little bit light heavyweight-ish, and a typical AAA-product, but they fought hard & that's what I like to see.

El Brazo vs. Rambo, hair vs. hair, CMLL 3/22/96 Thought I'd compare this to Rambo's earlier fight in AAA. CMLL hair matches always feel like more of a fight than AAA matches. More punching, ramming each other's heads into the ringpost, the mat... Just more scrappy in general. Yet they're far more narrow in scope, even with a double bladejob like this one. Even though they're more solid than AAA hair or mask matches, they lack that big time feel. The structure is largely the same -- two quick falls & a longer one -- but there's much ado about finishes in AAA. To get that big, flashy feel they play up the crescendo of each fall, while CMLL is low key. I like the work better in this match, but the arc of where the match begins & where it ends is really small, despite how pissy the loser is. Sometimes a match needs heat to take it to the next level. Perhaps this wasn't a big feud. Perhaps the approach is too direct, with not enough weight given to the finishes. In any case, the match doesn't resolve anything. There's a sense of justice or injustice in even the screwiest of AAA finishes. Maybe this is just a fight. Kinda seems like a waste of a guy's hair, though.

Is that the one that ends with them piledriving each other on the floor? That was an awkward finish.

What I want to know is when Michaels and Flair became such good friends. Was this in Flair's first or second run with the company?

I'm not so sure I think Flair is a scumbag based on what you mentioned, and I find it difficult to believe that everyone in wrestling is on the scummy side. I dunno, maybe scum has a different connotation in the US. It's pretty harsh where I come from. Anyway, wrestling (to me) seems less of a profession & more of a lifestyle, and I think that lifestyle feeds the business as much as the business creates the lifestyle. People talk about wrestlers not being able to separate their character from real life, but it's not like the movies & lord knows actors have a hard time switching off when the director calls cut. Wrestlers are like anyone else in show business. When Flair was cutting all those cool promos in the 80s, he probably was doing all that shit he talked about. The whole business is predicated on bad behaviour. The worse a guy acts the better a heel he is, yet when shit happens in real life people go ape. I'm rambling now. If Flair committed manslaughter, I'd probably agree he was scummy.

Trio Fantasia v. Thundercats, masks vs. masks, 12/8/91 Trio Fantasia are Super Muñeco, Super Raton & Super Pinocho. Thundercats are actually Leono, Tigro and Panthro. Complete costumes and everything. THIS IS A FUCKING GREAT BRAWL. One of the best Monterrey brawls I've ever seen, and definitely one of the best lucha matches of the 90s. I had no idea this was a mask match when I started watching it. I was expecting comedy, maybe a bit of flying. This was amazing. They beat the fuck out of each other in front of 17,000. Super Muñeco's sucked in a thousand matches, but was awesome here. Super Raton was fucking boss. Mangled bodies, ripped masks, one hell of a stained canvas. Panthro's mask was soaked in blood. It was surreal to see gimmicked workers maul each other like this. And to top it all off, Los Thundercats unmasked as the most veteran, journeymen workers you're ever likely to see. Amazing!

As far as the Benoit thing goes, I read about murders in the newspaper all the time without giving them much thought. Hell, shortly before the murder-suicide, I read a magazine article about the growing trend in men killing their families. Didn't give it much thought. Yet when Benoit did it, I was shocked. I don't have kids, but I got married not so long ago & I couldn't understand how anyone could hurt their wife. Happens all the time, I just never thought about it. Can't say I'm outraged; I find the whole thing incomprehensible. It's a fucked-up situation, and I can't blame anyone for the way they react, including not thinking about it too much, which leads to cheering the name drop. I doubt those guys have really thought about what happened, or maybe they're just idiots, but people do stupid shit all the time and this was stupid shit. As far as disattachment goes, I don't know how much I need to know or should care that Flair used coke & fucked around. I'm sure a lot of women have cared over the years, not to mention his wife, but you've gotta draw the line somwhere. Where that line is, I don't really know. I'd hate to say the line is murder or death, but there's only so much you can care about when it doesn't affect you or the people around you.

Villano III vs. Rambo, hair vs. mask, AAA 9/24/93 Rambo was such an awesome gimmick as he looked less like Rambo & more like your average mercenary/militant from an 80s action flick. He wasn't much of a worker aside from easy to set-up spots & big bumps, but this was AAA & the style revolves around big spots & bigger bumps. Brawling Villano is my favourite kind of Villano III. I saw him brawl with El Hijo del Santo the other day, which made me wish there was a widely known match between the two. Likewise I saw him reignite the hate between the Villanos and the Brazos, this time with de Plata Jr & Platino, which was right up my alley. This was a big, dopey AAA style brawl, but a fun match. Rambo took a huge bump to the outside, which was your typical insane AAA bump. I'm still searching for another AAA Classic, but I think a lot of people would dig this.

Everybody needs to check out this clip of Los Brazos vs. Los Fantasticos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLTOJ7Fa8bA Such an amazingly great caida of wrestling. Everything you need to know about lucha, you can learn from watching Los Brazos. Brazos vs. MS-1/Pirata Morgan/Emilio Charles, Jr. (early 90s, aired WWO) Brazos vs. Kato Kung Lee/Super Astro/Volador, CMLL 2/8/91 Brazos vs. Atlantis/Mascara Sagrada/Octagon, CMLL 5/17/91 These aren't outstanding matches, in fact they're mostly Brazos shtick, but shtick is part of what makes lucha great. Porky's girth was a big reason why Los Brazos were a success. If Porky hit a splash, they won a lot of falls, but he was a simple soul; easily distracted & forever getting yelled at by his brothers. Which always led to Porky crying & wanting to leave. If you've never seen Porky cry, it's a sight to behold. Fans would pull him by the arm to keep him from leaving, & El Brazo would try to console him, but the classy part was when the technicos won the fall. They'd invite Porky to celebrate with them, & after it slowly dawned on him, he'd leap for joy. The brothers were never very happy about that, and Porky would have to be nudged back over to his side. Some people might wonder how the middle of a match can be consumed by comedy like that, or how a potentially great match-up in Brazos vs. MS-1, Pirata & Emilio can be built around miscommunication between Pirata & Emilio and still be a blast... Simply put it's part & parcel of lucha libre. The reason it's gold is that it's actually funny. The comedy's never based on stupidity. It's always genuine humour. Charisma and humour. Like The Destroyer or Fujiwara. Aside from the skits, I've seen a few people express frustration at great workers like Atlantis being paired with Mascara Sagradas or Octagons in trios... That's not a problem when the rudos are Brazos. When searching for lucha, there's no guarantees about match quality. The greatest looking trios can be letdowns, while entertaining matches feature the worst workers. General rule of thumb -- at least one great technico & two great rudos. Lucha is this kind of all-embracing style where even the shittiest of workers have their moments.

Miguel Perez Jr./Ricky Santana vs Los Head Hunters I y II, CMLL 8/5/94 Here's a match I wasn't too sure about that ended up being pretty damn good. I guess I'm a bit iffy about foreigners working Mexico, but these guys took to it well. It's a beatdown to start with; Los Head Hunters cutting off the face comebacks, before taking it to the outside & working the foreign objects. An older lady complains to the ref while Santana blades at her feet. Awesome. Bloodied & battered, the faces fight back & it's all big moves and even bigger misses. I reckon the Head Hunters' huge splashes when Santana or Perez roll out of the way are even cooler than their planchas, though it does look cool when guys that big do planchas. The Head Hunters are massively fun. Love that rolly polly bumping. Santana and Perez, Jr. are straight out of 1994. Haircuts, tights, "bulked-up" power based offence. You name it. Great lucha finish, though. This smokes almost any other foreigner's work from '93-95. You can find this on youtube.