ohtani's jacket

Not a match I'd usually watch, but I wanted to see out the year with some Danielson. Neat opener. I've never seen the Briscoes before. This had an old-school feel to it. Danielson actually reminded me quite a bit of Backlund in this match. Briscoe hung with Danielson in a fundamentally sound way that reminded you of studio matches of days gone by. Danielson didn't do anything terribly amazing, but I liked the flow here. I'm glad I decided it to watch it.

This was a great looking match on paper but was mostly a mediocre brawl with not one, but two, referee stretcher jobs. There was some slick running between the ropes from Felino and Black Tiger, and Casas vs. Wagner was good when they weren't busy fluffing about, but the finish was the kind of abject nonsense that makes people hate Monterrey. The ref started running the ropes like a madman and hit Wagner with a clothesline then counted the pin. The crowd loved it, which I guess should count for something, but how many great matches on paper have been ruined by Monterrey BS. I should know better at this point, but even if the matches are rarely above house show level, you still think there's going to be that one gem that slips through the cracks. Forgettable year for Negro Casas. The next time someone says he was one of the best in the world for every year of his career, call them out on it.

This was a fun, albeit predictable, television match. They played up the dynamic well. Rey seemed to have a bit of difficult hitting his usual counters on Brock, or maybe Brock wasn't used to taking hurricanranas. I quite liked the realistic finish. There was no shame in Rey losing to Brock, and I was pleased that Brock didn't need any gimmickry to defeat Rey. Won't get anywhere near MOTY for me personally, but definitely worth watching.

This was better than I expected given that Ogawa sucks and I've been generally down on Kawada of late. I liked how reckless and loose it felt. Given how poor inter-promotional matches are in the 00s, and how shitty the build up was with the emphasis on "mic performances" (the Japanese version of promos), they at least gave us a genuine fight. I didn't agree with the booking decisions (the restart and finish), but I was engrossed by the action, which I didn't think would happen. Fun match.

I appreciated the fact that they gave us a huge title fight on the final RAW of the year. As far as the wrestling went, Michaels' offence looked terrible in the early going and the match was much better when Triple H was in control no matter what people think of his poor man's Harley Race schtick. Triple H's haircut was weird. It reminded me of when I finally cut my hair in the late 90s and tried to keep some of the length. Michael's thinning hairline was also pretty off-putting. I spent a chunk of the match being weirded out by their hair. Eventually, I was suckered into the WWE melodrama that they do so well, especially when JR and the King were still around. It was a great crowd, which always helps. But, in typical WWE fashion, they couldn't pull the plug on Michaels winning the title in his hometown and had to get all cutesy with the finish. I couldn't give two shits about Bischoff at this point, and even Austin returning wasn't anything special. The real drama was in the finishing stretch and they shat all over it with the booking. Michaels' facial expressions were hilariously bad. I respect his comeback in general, but he's such a shitty actor. For a free TV match, this was a nice end of year gift, but I could have done without the Dusty finish.

I’m thankful I ain’t Ricky Rude.

Not best of seven, but Flair and Regal had that best of five Marquis of Queensbury cup, and I wanna say that Rick Rude and Dustin Rhodes had a best of three series. The problem with declaring a best of seven series is that you're telegraphing that it'll go seven.

Mark Rocco vs. Ashura Hara (10/4/79) I'm not a big fan of Rocco in Japan, but if he's wrestling as himself and his opponent is the great Ashura Hara, then I'm there. It's obvious watching this that Rocco doesn't know how he should wrestle in Japan considering he was on a tear in the UK. That said, the audience really only pops for Hara's nearfalls so maybe it was a tough crowd. Hara is awesome. Rocco probably could have done more to stand out.

Mile Zrno & Charly Verhulst vs. Ashura Hara & Jiro Inazuma (Gerry Morrow) IWE 5/9/1979 I'm a little upset that Jetlag didn't tell me he uploaded a Zrno vs Hara tag, and it has Charly Verhulst to boot! Zrno vs. Hara is one of the greatest match-ups in pro-wrestling history. I wish they had wrestled as many times as Flair and Steamboat. Verhulst was a better world traveler than the likes of Steve Wright, and Hara should be remembered as one of the great juniors. That is all.

Man, that Ohtani/Orihara match is every bit as good as advertised. What a brutal, spite-filled bout with two young guys too dumb enough to know that the victory wasn't worth getting hurt over.

That Bruno/Patera match is great. Bruno is so good at delivering a kick or a knee, and his clubbing blows look fantastic. The lack of commentary and constant heat made for one of the better viewing experiences I've had in a while. It almost felt like you were there. Ken Patera was a great pro-wrestler. Loved his bladejob and punch drunk shtick at the end. His diving elbow when Bruno was scrambling for the corner was sweet. Awesome sideburns too.

Fuck yes, this is more like it. Hashimoto proves he isn't completely washed up by systematically taking apart Masato Tanaka. Excellent.

This was better than you'd expect given that Momoe can't really work Yoshida's style. It was a bit sprinty since it was a tournament final, and it basically became a typical Momoe AJW match after Yoshida got her shit in, but I was expecting a whole lot worse. Maybe I'm being generous because it's two of my faves. I've certainly seen worse tournament finals.

This was a lot of fun. It was clipped in parts so it was hard to get a gauge for the rhythm, but the third fall was hard fought and featured some great action. Virus, Ricky Marvin & Volador Jr may have been the best trio in Mexico in 2003. This was an opportunity to see them in a different territory, and against guys you wouldn't usually see them wrestle.

This was a decent spot fest, but I was looking for something with a bit more meat, especially since ROH hasn't had anywhere near as good matches in 2003 as it did in 2002, and Joe's run as champ hasn't had a lot of blow away matches, either. Instead, it was more of the same. The work was good, but there was no real attempt at trying to make this a classic world title fight, which is strange because a classic world title fight would have really stood out in '03.

Modesto Aledo vs. Bob Remy (aired 7/29/67) This wasn't as exciting as the first Aledo match, largely because it didn't descend into manchettes and crowd brawling, but we did get to see some of the mechanics of Aledo's wrestling. He definitely looks like he was a great worker. It's a little difficult to tell which mold of worker, but I'm glad this match wasn't missing as originally thought. Frank Valois vs. Jacky Wiecz (aired 8/2/67) Jesus, Valois was a big unit. This isn't my preferred style of wrestling, but they joined during the heated part so it wasn't too bad. I was surprised to see Wiecz take the win. Robert Gastel vs. Eddie Williams (aired 8/2/67) This restored my faith in Robert Gastel. I was kind of down on him after the boring Di Santo match, and was beginning to have my doubts about him, but he was much better here. Williams was a good looking, athletic type, but didn't offer much outside of his physique. Gastel totally carried this. The ref was truly awful and almost ruined things with his cornball act, but even his BS couldn't detract from Gastel's crafty performance. Anton Tejero vs. Walter Bordes (aired 8/29/67) This match was available back in the old days when every piece of Catch footage was like mana from heaven. Tejero is a fabulous worker, but I wasn't really feeling this. I wanted to see Bordes shine, but Tejero was up to his tricks all bout long and Bordes didn't cut loose until the finishing stretch. I'd probably like this more on a different day where I haven't just watched an entire run of similar matches. Teddy Boy vs Gerard Bouvet (aired 12/16/67) Final few minutes. Looked like they drew good heat. Bouvet was jacked for a smaller guy.

I may have been too hard on The Authority. I'm still not fond of late 90s superhero comics, but it's better than I gave it credit for. Hitch's art is beautiful even if it is at the forefront of the shift towards big panels and sparse dialogue.

I'm not super high on L'Ange Blanc as a worker, but those tag matches look intriguing, especially the one with Hercules Cortez.

Crime and Punishment: Marshal Law Takes Manhattan is a 48 page one-shot that offers us Patty Mills' irreverent take on some of the most famous Marvel superheroes. Originally, Mills wanted to use the actual characters, but Marvel wouldn't let him. I think I prefer it that way as it lets O'Neill cut loose with some unhinged versions of Marvel's heroes. The story is standard "superheroes are bad" fare with a generous helping of bloods and guts. O'Neill's artwork is every bit as demented as you'd hope, and Mills provides some zingers, especially if you're a longtime fan of the Marvel supes.

I read the original Marshal Law limited series last month. It kind of fell apart in the final two issues, but in the wake of Kevin O'Neill's passing, I'd rather emphasize the great artwork. I really liked the coloring too. I'm mostly used to reading O'Neil's work in black and white. The color made his art pop on Marshal Law. RIP, Kev. Torquemada is still one of my all-time favorite villains.

This was a standard elimination match up until the Michaels bladejob, and not a particularly inventive one. Michael's bladejob was pretty horrific by WWE standards. The match kicked up a gear with Shawn trying to defy the odds and save Austin's career. The ending was a bummer. Austin felt it, the crowd felt it. They took forever letting Austin get his heat back with the goodbye promo and the stunners on Jonathan Coachman and the security guards. Lawler being at a loss for words was a nice touch. Not sure why people think this is a classic Survivor Series tag. The early eliminations are an afterthought. The Michaels stuff was good, but not off the charts. Gotta agree with Makai's rating on this one.

Fair point. I watched Burke vs Weston again last night to see whether I'm barking up the wrong tree, and I still think Burke looks great. Weston too. Anyway, Burke is already in, I won't take up anymore of your time about this.

We'll probably never know how truly good Burke was as a worker, especially since much of the debate about what made a good worker from that era was whether they could shoot. The opinion of other workers is hearsay. You have to take into account the biases, prejudices and jealousies that exist within the business before taking a wrestler's word at face value. That said, Leen believed that both Burke and Byers were great workers, and I'm fairly certain he meant workers period not "women workers." Just because no-one was comparing the women to the men before Terry Funk told Dave that the All Japan girls were better than the men doesn't mean the women were worse. Thesz and others may have thought women's wrestling was a freak show, but if you look at the Golden Age footage, it's not a primitive style of wrestling. A primitive style of wrestling would be hairpulling and catfights. There was an element of that in some heel-led matches, but in many bouts the women show a fair degree of technical skill. It was surprising to me, as I expected nothing but back scratching and hair tosses, but that style of wrestling became the predominant women's wrestling style after Burke & Co. retired. I also object to Burke being just as good as the standard guys given the huge number of journeymen at the time. I don't have proof of this, but I suspect Burke's better world title fights were a damn sight better than the average journeyman heel vs. babyface bout from the Golden Age.

God, the selling in this sucked. So many pop up transitions from both guys when they were meant to be dead. The commentary was unbearable. Some shrill geek screaming cliches the entire time. I'm not predisposed towards liking this type of match, but I thought Homicide and Corino would do better. They should have spent more time watching FMW tapes beforehand.

This was an interesting novelty match with Ogawa trying every cheap trick he could think of to possibly pull off the upset. You have to give Ogawa a ton of credit for his performance here as heel tricks don't always resonate in Japan. I loved the part where Kobashi finally lost his cool and started chopping Ogawa's cut. I wouldn't argue with anyone who claimed Kobashi was the best worker in the world in 2003. It's kind of sad that a broken wrestler is the best worker among the world's elite, but as a guy who hasn't always been the biggest Kobashi fan, I've gotta say he was on a different level to everyone else in terms of crowd connection and the weight behind every move. It's not necessarily doing more with less, or any of that bullshit, but the timing of every movement queuing the crowd into the stakes. Smart stuff, but it must have hurt like a mother fuck.