ohtani's jacket

This falls in the "If it's a Tenryu match, it's a match worth watching" basket. Miyamoto was the first post-split graduate of the All Japan dojo. Jesus, what a time to make your debut. I feel sorry for the kid. Still, he attacks Tenryu with plenty of guts and fire, and gets his nose busted open for his pains. Miyamoto hangs in there for longer than expected, and shows his fighting spirit and all of that important stuff, but Tenryu is cold blooded. He shows the kid no mercy. What a bastard.

L‘Homme Masque vs. Andre Drapp (aired 3/4/66) I thought I'd seen this already but apparently not. I'm not going to try to guess who was under the hood at this point. The main attraction here is seeing an older Drapp in action. They tumble about and do some fun stuff, but they don't take is as seriously as something like Leduc vs. Le Bourreau de Bethune. I'm not gonna lie, I would have preferred a more serious wrestling match to the crowd pleasing shtick they ran with, but it was more entertaining than 30 minutes of Kiyomigawa. I'm not sure how regularly Drapp was working in France at this point, but the bout did leave me curious as to how good he might have been against a better worker.

This was pretty short and was mainly notable for the charming mic work from Yoneyama afterward. I never really know what to make of Tamura, and still have no idea how good she really was. She had a solid rep back in the day, but I haven't the heart to watch long NEO matches. Yoneyama came across as a lovable loser in this. JWP seemed to have quite a few of those types in the early 00s.

This went 30 minutes, which is too long for these two. (So, naturally, they went out and worked 40 minutes in their next singles match.) Slow start with a lot of time killing. Heats up in the back half, and has some really strong action, which begs the question of why they had to stretch out the beginning. Bitching aside, these two match up well and make for strong rivals. The finishing stretch is very good. Hyuga continues to impress as an all-round worker, and Ran's game is strong. Lukewarm recommendation.

These two never disappoint. Easily one of my favorite match-ups of the early 2000s. This was their version of a touring match. I could easily imagine them having the exact same match in Zero-1. The commentators kept riffing on it being teacher vs. student, the work being shoot style, and other annoying shit, but if you can block out the college radio crap , the end result is Homicide and Low Ki hitting each other as hard as they can. Otherwise known as the good stuff.

Guy Mercier/Claude Montourcy vs. Chati Yokouchi/Kiyomigawa (aired 2/20/66) This was like watching paint dry. They keep having these guys on TV who aren't true catcheurs. Surely, there was something better they could have shown us than this. Mercier and Montourcy were decent workers, but Kiyomigawa and Yokouchi were part of that first generation of Japanese wrestlers who were boring hands. If they'd cheated here with more conviction, and thrown manchettes with a bit more gusto, this would have been all right, but as it was, they only exciting parts were the finishes to each fall. You can go ahead and skip this.

Man, this was a great mano a mano. You look at the match length and you figure it will be a disappointment, but the thing they did here that really set them apart from their contemporaries was to work incredibly stiff with each other. Both guys dished out some great looking shots, and their intensity never let up. Shocker was 1000% dialed in. Ultimo brought just enough matwork to make me happy by tying Shocker in knots, and they worked a dramatic tercera that wouldn't have looked out of place in a higher stakes bout. Really cool finish, apeshit crowd, and some killer promos afterward. As a piece of business, this had it all. There's no doubt that these two guys are the best workers in CMLL, and their rivalry matches AJ Styles vs. Low Ki and Benoit vs. Angle for the best in wrestling. Not only that, but there's a return match to look forward to.

I wasn't feeling this. It would have been pretty average for a Smackdown main event let alone a PPV match. It was a pure sprint with no heat section. Benoit was the best guy in the match, which comes as no surprise. The Brock vs. Angle exchanges weren't very inspiring. For some reason, Meltzer gave this four stars, but I don't see how.

This was an amazingly cool spotfest. That shouldn't come as a surprise as it involves Styles vs. Low Ki, but the London stuff was great as well. Man, there was some painful looking stuff in this .All three guys came up with inventive ways to hurt each other. There was some need camerawork in this at well. Some of it was shot from angles that aren't typically used in wrestling, which gives you a different perspective on the work. This wasn't the kind of match that will be etched in the memory forever, but it's a good example of enjoying three-way wrestling. Even the goofy spots are fun to watch. I love Styles' violent combos that look like they come straight out of a video game. With so many other workers they'd look stupid, but with Styles you're left wondering, "why did nobody ever think of that before?"

This was a decent match but it had a weird dynamic. It was heels vs. heels but wrestled like it was faces vs. faces. Haas and Benjamin don't even cheat to win. Instead, they get a babyface style victory. The action is good, but none of the match-ups are outstanding. Eddie is good but doesn't set the world on fire. I do agree that Team Angle have been handled well. They don't appear to have a tremendous ceiling, however, as they do lack charisma. It's hard to imagine that either of them would have been a breakout singles star. But it's cool to see some more amateurs in the WWE, and a bit more mat wrestling at times. I'm always down for that.

The promotion names is something that's always confused me. My understanding is that the promotion names weren't that important and that most people referred to the promoter or the venue rather than the promotion. The promotion names were all so similar that I've mostly forgotten which was which. James Brown & Ray Apollon vs. Jack de Lasartesse & Hans Hess (aired 2/11/66) This was a few months before James Brown's tragic death. It wasn't really anything remotely like French Catch. It was more of a beatdown, but if you're gonna have a match where the heels beat down the faces then there are few better at the delivering a beating than Lasartesse. I believe Hess was the same guy who worked in the UK as the "King of the Vikings", Leif Rasmussen. He was an Austrian wrestler, and pretty fun. But really this is about Lasartesse beating on Brown, who did a pretty solid job of taking a beating and working from underneath. Again, not really Catch, but solid enough.

I literally have no idea what any of those are, but thank you!

I used to hate Jericho, but his '00-02 stuff has gone up in my estimation since I started visiting and revisiting those years. So, he's off my shit list.

This had a lot of moves, but it was probably the most pure lucha match you'll see from January, 2003. For some reason, I thought it was going to be an apuestas match, but it was actually some sort of title match. I love the fact that there are guys doing a Rock 'n' Roll Express gimmick in Mexico. That's cool. I'm not sure whether you could get away with the Orientales gimmick in this day and age, but I like the mask designs. Lots of fun lucha exchanges in this and some nice dives. Unfortunately, the commentary is dubbed over the top of the footage so you lose the crowd noise, which is a bummer.

I thought this was a great television match. I was sick to death of this feud when they were tag partners, but their singles work keeps getting better and better. When you think of Benoit vs. Angle, the first thing that springs to mind is a bunch of endless Crossface into Ankle Lock into Crossface into Ankle Lock counters, and a million suplexes, but the bulk of this match was gritty as fuck matwork. Tremendous stuff that looked totally out of place on WWE TV. Benoit getting busted open hardway as cool as fuck. This feud has moved up in my estimation.

Name me 5 to start with.

I don't have as much access to 2003 CMLL TV as I did with '00-02, but I'll watch whatever I can. This was a short match. I'd call it a sprint, but they didn't do much sprinting. It was just really short. It ended up being a decent showcase for the Infernales, but the tecnicos didn't get to do much. You'd think Super Crazy was at least get a highspot in. Satanico and Blue Demon brawled at the end, and it goes to show what a Satanico mark I am as it had me thinking, "Hmm, that could be good."

I've mostly been reading Brubaker's Captain America and Bendis' Daredevil. Brubaker's Captain America is one of the most cinematic comic books I've ever read. It reads like a film. It has the most beautifully choreographed fight scenes of any superhero book I've read, and no matter who the artist is, the book has the same look. Even the coloring adds a lightning effect similar to the visual tone of a film or television series. It has an incredibly realistic feel to it, right down to the detail in Captain America's costume. I don't know how many years ago it was released, but to me, this is a cutting edge comic and what modern comics should aspire to surpass. Another notable thing about it is how drawn out the storylines are. It feels like Brubaker is playing the long game, which writers aren't always allowed to do when they're given the keys to a Marvel character. Bendis' Daredevil isn't as good, but it's piqued my interest enough that I actively want to read it. Daredevil is one of my favorite characters, but I haven't read any of the modern runs on the title. The hook for me in Bendis' run so far is the idea that all this tragedy follows Matt every time he puts on the Daredevil costume, and the notion that he should retire as Daredevil and never wear the costume again, which of course plays into the idea of how much of Matt's identity is made up of the Daredevil persona, and vice versa. The art is kind of unusual for a Marvel comic, but I keep reminding myself that I grew up on Frank Miller/Sienkiewicz comics. Some of Maleev's art is really beautiful, and some of it is awkward and poor storytelling. Bendis' over-writing isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sometimes he'll throw in a reference to a song or something that makes me cringe a bit, but that's about it. I am slowly discovering that there is value in comics post-2000.

A thought just occurred to me: were Billy Kidman and Tarzan Boy separated at birth? This was no good. It didn't help that Cena, B2 and Rikishi made mid-match run-ins in classic Smackdown style, or that Cena stayed on commentary, spitting rhymes like J Roc from Trailer Park Boys, but at the end of the day Eddie hadn't really hit his groove yet in the WWE and Kidman was having the same kind of issues that other WCW guys had with the house style. There was nothing worth seeing in this.

This was the go-home show before the Rumble. Pretty good match, but Angle and Benoit didn't interact a whole lot except for the finish where Benoit hooked Angle in the Crossface a couple of times and beat him a crutch. The kind of stuff that's tailor-made for the hype video at the PPV. Benoit and Hass had good chemistry again. Edge was weak as the face-in-peril.

The black and white mag immediately undoes the ending of the original series. I think it was meant to continue the story, but it quickly turns into an anthology series. There's some nice art from Colan and Buscema, and a quirky story from Steve Ditko, but it doesn't add anything to the Tomb experience. I am interested to hear wat you think of Night Force. I wanted to check that out at some point.

Dusty Rhodes Promo ("I played golf in the 70's!") (N.W.A. World Heavyweight Champion) (1981) -- Dusty cuts a fantastic promo on Ric FLARE! If you like Dusty's promo work then you need to check this out. Harley Race vs. Manny Fernandez (February 9th, 1980) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- this looked like a typical touring champ match, and may have been another of those frustrating Harley Race matches if we had it in full, but as a clip I loved the way Solie and Fernandez explained the psychology behind the action. Basic stuff for most wrestling fans, I imagine, but something that's lacking in today's commentary. Good footage. Mr. Saito (RIP) vs Terry Taylor (1980) @The Sportatorium -- Masa Saito was such a great worker. I guess nobody told him that studio matches didn't need to be this good. Saito is one of those workers where I can literally watch any match of his and enjoy it. Good stuff. Ivan Koloff vs Hector Guererro (1980) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- another really good studio match involving another really good worker, Ivan Koloff. Koloff overwhelms poor jobber Guerrero for the victory. Good stuff. Dick Slater vs Raul Mata (1978) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- man, Florida studio wrestling was pretty damn good. I've read that Raul Mata had a good rep among the wrestlers in Florida. He was a guy who was happy to be wrestling regardless of where he appeared on the card. This felt like an El Dandy WCW studio match at times. I really like this type of studio wrestling. Good stuff.

MS-1, Pirata Morgan & Satánico vs Atlantis, Brazo de Plata & El Faraón (CMLL 6/26/92) I can't find all of the footage from the Infernales run, so we're skipping ahead here to the trios from the week before the El Faraon/MS-1 hair match. MS-1 is the captain here, but there's quite a bit of cat and mouse stuff to begin with between MS-1 and Faraon. Instead of MS-1 leading the match, we get some brilliant exchanges between Satanico and Atlantis. This is easily the best Satanico has looked in these matches and far better than Satanico vs. Lizmark. Atlantis is outstanding in this bout. These are the types of bouts you need to watch to truly understand what Atlantis was all about. Porky's stuff is a lot of fun as well, and Pirata goes a fine job rotating with Satanico as the workrate guy. MS-1 vs. Faraon gets better as the bout continues and they end up doing some fun stuff together. They're heavyweights, so the exchanges are different from the middleweights, and Faraon comes across as the last of a dying breed of tall, bodybuilder type gladiadores. They generated enough interest in their match for me to want to watch it, but it's Satanico vs. Atlantis that really excites me. I feel like they missed a step with Satanico vs. Lizmark and rehashing Satanico vs. Dandy. Good match.

It was cancelled and immediately rebooted as a black and white magazine. I don't recommend the magazine unless you're into Colan's artwork. Cartoonist Kayfabe is awesome.

Solid TV match that continued Team Angle's push. Hot start with Benoit pulling out a tope, followed by a heat segment on Edge and the hot tag to Benoit. Screwy finish, but what else would you expect.