ohtani's jacket

I think this was Perro Jr's debut at Arena Mexico as Perro Snr was on hand to give him some rub. What a breath of fresh air Perro Jr was. Fun match that showed how great Damian and Halloween were as "glue men." Halloween, in particular, is really great at this stage of his career. Super Crazy has been a bust in CMLL, but Niebla was more inspired than usual, and an inspired Niebla adds more to a trios match than just about any other tecnico outside of Santo, Casas or Atlantis. I'm looking forward to more Perro Jr.

This was pretty weak, as you can imagine. They would have been better of doing a straight trios match. There was a lot of meandering about with no one really knowing how to work a cage match. It was obvious that it would come down to El Terrible vs Bestia since the pair of them had the longest hair. Bestia couldn't really work a dramatic final stanza despite his years of experience. CMLL are trying really hard to get El Terrible over. It's not working with me.

This was probably the best trios match of the year so far. It was by no means a classic lucha libre trios match, but it had some snappy workrate, and how often do you get to see Bobby Quance work with Virus? If Ricky Marvin hadn't been so subdued, this might have been off the chain.

This was okay, but they went for more of a story match than their initial meeting, which was pure technique. I can understand why they wanted to tell a story, but from a purely selfish point of view, I would have rather seen them work a pure technical bout. For one thing, the whole "heart and soul" of Rey Mysterio thing kind of works better against a bigger opponent than Tajiri, and it gets a bit boring seeing Mysterio work injured all the time. I'm pretty sure these guys would've stood out more being lightning quick, but I guess the road agent had different ideas. Can't think of any great cruiserweight matches that were a prolonged beatdown followed by a comeback, though.

Punk's straight edge gimmick is annoying. Yeah, it's designed to be annoying, but it's more of a roll-of-the-eyes heat than any kind of brilliant heel shtick. As far as his work goes, he's not as bad as the people who hate his guts make out, but he's clearly not as good as someone like AJ Styles. In fact, it's pretty much a textbook example of how to hang with a better worker. The trouble is that it's just another match. In the first year of ROH, every match came across as a blockbuster. You were getting indie dream matches on every card. Now you're getting matches. This needed at least another 10 minutes, a stronger finishing stretch, and no Samoa Joe cameo on commentary, to come remotely close to anything from ROH Year One. I don't know what the ceiling was on Punk vs .Styles matches, but I'd like to think it's higher than this.

That started in 1990 when he was a member of the Diet. He was giving a lecture at a university prep school and was involved in some kind of stunt where a prep school student punched Inoki in the abdomen as hard as he could. The student was a Shorinji Kempo practitioner and must have hit Inoki pretty hard because the slap was a reflex action. The student immediately bowed and thanked Inoki for the slap. It was caught on camera and was broadcast nationally. After that, students preparing for the University of Tokyo entrance exam asked to be slapped and they all passed. That's how the Fighting Spirit slap became a thing.

Inoki had been sick for a while, but it was a shock when they brought him out on TV recently in a wheelchair. People have been overlooking what a carny he was, and the batshit insane things he did, but it was a life well lived.

Yukon Eric vs. Baron Gattoni I don't think this is a new match, but it hasn't been on the internet for a while. Easily the most entertaining Yukon Eric bout we have on tape. It wasn't your typical run-of-the-mill 50s match. It was far more hectic and used plenty of smoke and mirror tricks, but I enjoyed the change of pace. Short and sweet.

Finlay vs. St. Clair (CWA Bremen´94 - Chain match) This was okay, but you don't get the violence that you want from a chain match. It's closer to a WWE cage match than those gruesome 80s German handhelds. I guess the CWA wasn't a very violent promotion, but I can't imagine too many people watching this and not wishing that Finlay had used the chain a bit more.

This was so uninspired. You look at the listing and think, "Ugh, three way match." Then you watch it and think, "Ugh, three way match." JR was strangely subdued in this match. I don't know if he was trying to sell the gravity of Kane sending Shane McMahon to the hospital, or he was meant to be nervous about his upcoming tag match against Al Snow and Jonathan Coachman, OR because he was still recovering from Kane setting on fire, but he seemed bored. So you've got a bored Jim Ross commentating over a boring match that barely rises above the level of a television match. I didn't realize that 2003 WWE was this meh. Such stupid booking. If they had ran the Christian vs. RVD ladder match on this PPV, the effect would have been much greater. Avoid this. Nothing interesting happens in this match.

I finished Mark Waid's first run on The Flash. It was okay, but it was full of generic superhero stories. I don't see why it's considered a landmark run. I guess Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs' runs may be considered weird to some folks, but to me, they were far more brilliant. There were some positives to Waid's run. He was good at multi-part storylines, and he did a lot of nice stuff with Wally and Linda. To his credit, his writing was solid enough that it didn't really matter when the art was subpar, but I don't get what the big deal was, other than the fact that it was long. Perhaps the appeal is that it was a solid superhero run in a decade not known for its solid superhero runs, but you'd think it was the equivalent to Peter David's Hulk run the way some people go on about it. I guess other folks are way more into the Speed Force thing than I was. I must really like Wally West, though, as I intend to keep going through the Morrison and Millar run and back to Waid, and maybe even Johns.

I finished Chew over the weekend. It took me a while to get used to the art, but once I did, I was in for a ride. What a weird and wonderful series. It was batshit insane but strangely moving. And always entertaining. Thanks for the memories, Chew!

It's been a while since we've seen Los Talibanes on TV. This was part of a three-week build to a cage match. I always have time for Los Talibanes, even when their matches are shit, but they brought their working boots here. Talibanes vs. Halloween and Damian is always good, but they also managed to make Terrible look more interesting than he has in any other bout simply by beating him up. Gotta love a trio of old-school rudos.

Heat is shit kid Minoru Tanka doing a masked luchador gimmick, wearing some ridiculous get-up that would have looked better on his wife. He had no idea how to work like a luchador, and it shows. It doesn't really matter since they had plenty of experience working together in New Japan, and the Arena Mexico is 100% behind Dr Wagner as the Mexican representative in the bout, but it's not much of a lucha bout. They tease a big submission finish, since apparently Tanaka made Wagner submit the week before, but this time Wagner manages to break the hold. He doesn't sell it particularly well since it's not a common lucha trope, but it pops the crowd. I could do without these sort of matches, but I could see a certain type of fan thinking this was a better match than usual.

This was only a tournament match, but it was spirited. And we got to see Satanico vs. Shocker! Forget the Japanese guys and the Tijuana Family, the 2003 Satanico feud you needed to see was Satanico vs Shocker. The only drawback here was El Terrible, who still doesn't look like he belongs on the Guapos. I'm telling you, it should have been Zumbido.

I did not know that the Sexy Boy wrestled Randy Orton on PPV in 2003. The reason I didn't know is because the match is instantly forgettable. Orton was being pushed as the future of the company while Cena was barely holding onto his career with his Thuganomics gimmick, but for whatever reason, Michaels barely lifted a finger to help him. It was the most generic TV match imaginable on a RAW PPV. Orton wasn't a very good worker at this stage, but everybody involved could have tried a little harder.

This was the most generic of their matches together, but there were a few positives. Brock finally wrestled like the piece of shit that abused Zach Gowen, Spanky and Stephanie, and they peppered the match with enough falls that they avoided the problems Shawn and Bret had. They also avoided the temptation of a cheap finish. In fact, it was a bold decision to have the challenger go over. Brock's tactics meant that we never got to see any wrestling between the two, but the match was never boring. Just generic. I'm not entirely sure why Brock has such a cult following. I like the guy, but there was nothing outstanding about his performance in the match. I still think he's better off brawling with Big Show and the Undertaker than wrestling Kurt Angle.

Wilber Snyder vs. Wally Greb I'm a Snyder fan. He reminds me of wrestling's version of Burt Lancaster. It's just a shame that he was so often in these veteran vs. youngster matches instead of a technical showpiece. Not that there's anything wrong with what they do. It's solid pro-wrestling between a veteran journeyman and a young buck, but I'd like to see what Snyder was capable of on the mat. Bobo Brazil vs. Jim (Brute) Bernard Well, this was over quickly. The most interesting thing about this match, aside from the gimmick of Brazil beating opponents in under 20 seconds, was Bobo being interviewed afterward by Lord Layton. I don't think I've heard Bobo speak before. He seemed like a likeable fella. Dick Hutton vs. Wally Greb I believe this is the only Dick Hutton match we have on tape. Segunda Caida lists this as being from 11/1/57. If that's the case, then it's about two weeks before Hutton defeats Thesz in Toronto. It's difficult to watch this and imagine one guy is about to be crowned NWA champ. Hutton looked like a tough customer, but he didn't come across as the anointed guy to beat Thesz. Very much by-the-numbers pro-wrestling.

It was hard not to draw comparisons between this and Rob Van Dam's excellent ladder match with Eddie Guerrero, but these two won me over in the end. I'm surprised they gave away a PPV-quality match like this for free on RAW. It was certainly better than a lot of the PPV matches from this era. Christian wasn't really a huge personality at this point, but he was an excellent workmanlike talent. He had a bit of an air about him of a second rate Chris Jericho or Edge, but there's no questioning whether he brought his working boots. A couple of things stand out about Rob Van Dam. First of all, he's not as goofy as you'd expect. Secondly, he was over with the crowd. You have to think that someone in the office had hopes that he'd break through to the next level. Obviously, that didn't play out to the full extent, but it strikes me as an interesting and somewhat forgotten run. Great finish for a TV bout. You certainly got your money's worth if you went to this RAW show.

This was an excellent match. They had a match a few weeks later that was a real cookie-cutter bout and nowhere near as good, but this was superb. It wasn't the first time they'd met in singles competition, but they sold it like it was. The match felt like two great workers feeling each other out for the first time. It was endlessly creative. It's a shame that they dumbed it down for the rematch, but at least we have evidence here of what they could really do.

The internet is not concerned with preserving the build to this match. I thought this was a lot of fun. Both guys are limited and take an age to run between the ropes, but the match had the right sort of feel to it. It was shorter than you'd like, and in other parts of Mexico Pierroth would have definitely bled, but it had an element of sleaze to it. There was something grimy about the match that harkened back to the days of filthy mats and smoke filled arenas. Much better than some of the other Los Boricuas hair matches.

Fit Finlay vs Tony St. Clair (11/12/94) This was a fairly typical Finlay match from this era. A lot of whistleblowing, warnings, and boos from the crowd. Finlay is an excellent agitator, but it grows a bit wearisome after a while. I can understand why Finlay cultivated this heel act, and he had a lot of success with it, but a little bit of wrestling wouldn't go astray. I did like his promo afterward. Finlay has some underrated mic skills.

This was really good. It's amazing how good Kobashi's matches are considering how slow they are and how immobile he is. The level of detail is amazing. What a happy crowd. I don't think I've see so many shots of smiley, happy people before.

This was pretty crappy compared to Homicide vs. Funk. This Raven thing needs to go away.

This was a fun match. These two match up really well, and honestly I think I'd rather see Angle face Undertaker than just about anyone else in the company. It's amazing that Undertaker can try to work MMA spots and not come across as a total knob. Then again, he's somehow able to work the Undertaker gimmick as a redneck biker, so I shouldn't be surprised.