ohtani's jacket

Vic Christy vs Hans Schnabel and Don Arnold vs. Jimmy Lott -- this footage was a bit weird as the video said it was Red Berry & Tony Morelli vs the Becker Brothers, but it ended up being the two singles matches. And weirder still, the footage was spliced together so it kept switching between the two bouts. We actually have one other Christy vs. Schnabel match on tape. Watching Schnabel this time, I was struck by how good he was as brawling 50s heel. I don't think I've ever dug him as much as I did here. I don't know if that's because Christy is a good foil, or because he's working Los Angeles instead of Chicago, but he got over with me. Arnold vs. Lott is the better match -- more of a fired up, aggravated, technical bout -- but Schnabel stood out as giving the best performance. Despite the odd splicing, this is another example of why Los Angeles was such an exciting territory. Plenty of rhubarb in Los Angeles, that's for sure.

El Satanico/Pirata Morgan/MS-1 vs. Pierroth Jr./Jaque Mate/Masakre (2/21/92) This was even better than the first match. This was the match that set up Pirata vs. Masakre, and it was beautifully done as Satanico and MS-1 did a fucking number on Pierroth ad Jaque Mate, which left Masakre all alone. The Infernales were so good. They're easily the best trio I've seen. I'm not gonna say they're the greatest trio of all-time because they may be some historical acts that were better, but they're definitely the best trio from the TV era. They have no weakness. All three guys can be the lead guy, and when one guy is playing the lead (like Pirata does here), but other two still manage to give brilliant and compelling performances. Satanico is absolutely phenomenal here trying to unmask both Jaque Mate and Pierroth. Luchadores trying to unmask each other can be boring as shit, but Satanico raises it to an art form. MS-1 isn't as flashy as his partners, but he's brilliant in the heavyweight enforcer role, and I love his boxing spots. But the biggest revelation is Morgan. What the fuck happened to Pirata Morgan? Here he is in February 92 every bit as good as Dandy, Casas, or Satanico. He should have continued in this vein for at least another half a dozen years. Instead, he fell off a cliff. I guess it's all downhill from here for MS-1 too. Who would have thought that would happen with these hot ass matches? Interestingly, Los Intocables barely fire a shot over the course of two weeks, but the matches are still entertaining as hell. I don't remember the Pirata/Masakre match being a classic, but now I'm interested in revisiting it, which clearly makes these matches a success.

For the record, I’m not against Okada being in the HOF. I just think being close to a unanimous pick is overstating his place in history. Unless I’m reading it wrong and he was supposed to be a unanimous pick based on the ballot.

I know who Post Malone and Ariana Grande are because I hear their music in my every day life, and I hear people talking about them. Japan is a country that still uses a lot of print media, still has print advertising everywhere, and still has a huge nefwork television influence. It's great that New Japan is doing well with social media, but that doesn't mean it's having a real world effect.

Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Pierre Lagache & M'Boaba (aired 10/3/65) Bob Elandon was good enough that he didn't have to do the M'Boaba gimmick, but I guess someone thought there was money in it, or thought there was money in other guys doing similar gimmicks like The Wildman of Borneo and Masambula. To me, the worst part of the gimmick, aside from the fact that it was clearly racist, is that it reduced Elandon to being a generic heel brawler devoid of any of the flair of French catch. I didn't have a problem with the crowd getting behind the babyfaces. I'm sure there was a racial element to it, but the heels did cheat and they did give Ben Chemoul an illegal working over. We've see French crowds get triggered by heel performance before, so I don't think there was anything untoward about the Cirque d'Hiver getting so animated (especially when they kept cutting to the same couple of fans.) The commentary was bad, for sure, but the in-ring stuff wasn't outrageous. I would have been more disturbed if Ben Chemoul had spent the entire bout being a smartarsed babyface and making M'Boaba look like a dumb savage. The most intriguing thing about the bout was how Lagache kept plugging away and doing his thing. He ended up getting some decent heel heat, as well, which is another thing that suggests that this wasn't entirely racial.

I finished a few miniseries. I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League is the final Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire JLI miniseries. Lots of banter. The plot is secondary but there is some emotional growth to the characters (I imagine it was strictly limited to the Giffen/DeMatteis Bwahaha-universe, however.) Maguire's art is as good as ever. Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo wasn't the Michael Fleisher Jonah that I know, and the supernatural bent wasn't handled the way I expected, but Truman's art was nice. Jonah looked too much like Grimjack though. Sword of the Atom was decent. It felt like a pitch for an ongoing series. Not sure it would've had the legs for that, but as an experiment in turning Atom into a sword and sorcery title, it was pretty cool. I was surprised by how quickly things turned sour between Palmer and his wife. It happens only a few pages in, and it's pretty ugly. Gorgeous art by Kane. I was impressed at the effort Strnad & Kane went to to describe the physical effects of the Atom shrinking. That was really cool.

That ends my look at Casas' '95. I wouldn't call it a great year for Casas. He has some good stuff leading up to the Anniversary Show match with Santo, and a few good performances in random trios matches here and there, but he suffers from the usual CMLL problems of long stretches where he's either either off TV or not being utilized enough. He didn't get to do much as a tecnico, but they at least had the good sense to turn him rudo during the Santo program. 1995 is not really a great year for CMLL in general, so I would put it down to a general malaise than any failing on Casas' part. For my next project, I'm going to watch Los Infernales matches, and whatever else takes my fancy. Los Infernales: El Satanico/MS1/Pirata Morgan vs. Los Intocables: Pierroth Jr./Jaque Mate/Masakre (Arena Mexico, 2/14/1992) The Infernales/Intocables matches were so great. They were supposed to build to the Pirata vs. Masakre hair match, but we all know they were really about the Infernales vs. Pierroth. Pierroth in 1992 is one of my favorite all-time runs by a luchador. He rules the roost in 1992 as far as I'm concerned. I love how each of the Infernales is so good that they don't need a clear leader. Instead, they take turns dishing out the punishment. All three guys looked great in this, and the heat was tremendous. Pirata still looked like one of the best workers in the world here. How did it all go downhill so quickly? They should have never jumped to AAA, even if it did give us the Satanico vs. Pirata hair match. This was a smartly worked bout. They give us just enough to violence to warrant a return match, but it's mostly ego driven. Satanico is phenomenal, especially with his caged animal selling. MS-1 looms large throughout. Los Intocables actually don't seem like much of a match for the Infernales, but Masakre is a former Infernal so there's heat there, and I'm sure the Intocables will get some of their own back in the rematch. I absolutely adore this type of lucha.

I've been in Japan throughout the period we're talking about. I'm not glued to the TV every night, I'll admit, but I still find it hard to see the footprint you're talking about. I'm sure you can find it if you look for it, but it isn't an inescapable presence in daily life. Apparently, Bushiroad took New Japan out of insolvency and is generating more revenue than the late 90s, though where these revenue streams come from, I'm not sure, as live attendance still isn't as high as it was in the 90s. Clearly the management has been good, and it was wrong of me to say that business is mediocre. I still think it's crazy that he got close to a unanimous vote, but I guess the success that New Japan has had in the 2010s is important to voters.

I have a hard time believing that is true, but I'll take their word for it and dial back the rhetoric.

A lot of it has to do with the audiences they performed for. I don't think ROH fans, or modern WWE and AEW fans are quite the same as Japanese salarymen.

Imagine if we had footage from the 50s, 60s and 70s? When most people think about Portland, they think of Buddy Rose, but there were plenty of other great runs as well. It's time to champion the small-to-mid market, regional successes in wrestling. Enough of this papered baseball stadium attendance figure crap. Don Owen did more for the Northwest and the Portland community than Okada has ever done for Japan. Go the little guy.

I'll take that back then. As far as I recall, the last time Dave was interested in Mexico was when Mistico had his original run in CMLL.

This is true, but 90% of the vote? That can only be because of his matches, and the fact that Dave is behind him. The same thing happened with Mistico, who fell one vote short.

Stick him on the ballot. He sounds worthier than some of the names already on there.

Business is mediocre compared to the 90s, and the cultural impact of wrestling is nonexistent compared to the 80s. How did he get in with over 90%?

If they get into the HOF as All-Stars, then yes, more than you'd expect.

Dave's whole mentality seems to be that if you're a ball club that won a whole lot of games and some division tiles, you're not HOF worthy if you didn't win a championship. I get that for the most part, but when you times limited success by 10, or 20, or 30, or 40, that's a long time to be in business. How long do we think NOAH, ROH, TNA or AEW will last?

All right, then. I can't understand Dave's mentality at all. In fact, I do not understand why Okada was a slam dunk when business in Japan is rubbish compared to what it used to be. Okada was on top of a rubbish heap? Truly worthy. Obviously, some folks voted for Owen. Can anyone explain why?

Why shouldn't the Hall reward longevity? What exactly is wrong with surviving as a promoter for 30 or 40 years? Does this mean the Joint Promotions promoters, the German promoters, and the Paris promoters weren't successful because they ran smaller venues? How can the fact that Owen owned the building his TV show was shot in, and had one of the longest running television shows in wrestling history, be a negative?

Comparing Owen to a wrestler who was never a draw or a good worker seems unfair. If Owen is such a bad candidate why did people vote for him? And since when did having a sustainable business model become mediocre? I’d also like to know how Rocco came so close to making it in. If Portland wrestling is considered mediocre then how can Rocco have a leg to stand on?

Gordon Solie Interviews Joe Scarpa Regarding The March 5th, 1968 Card At Fort Homer Hesterly Armory -- Scarpa talks about his upcoming match with Johnny Valentine. Valentine has been accusing Scarpa of using his sleeper as a chokehold. Scarpa says he could if he wanted to, but he never would. I desperately want to see this bout. The main event of the show is a 6-man cage match, which seems pretty wild for 1968. Thunderbolt Patterson (1970) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- Thunderbolt Patterson is interested in one thing, and one thing only, money! He likes the finer things in life like Cadillacs and diamond rings. Fun promo. 22 Man Over The Top Rope Battle Royal (June 2nd, 1973) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- a 22 Man Over the Top Rope Battle Royal would ordinarily be pretty worthless, but this one ends with Paul Jones vs. Buddy Colt! Paul says he'll gladly put up the eight grand he won from this match for a shot at Buddy's Florida title. Good stuff. Ernie Ladd Turns Heel On Dusty Rhodes (June 8th, 1977) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- Ernie Ladd does a fabulous job of explaining why he turned on Dusty Rhodes. Dusty does an even better job of selling it in the ring. Top segment. Bounty Match! Dusty Rhodes vs Giant Baba (June 25th, 1974) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- Dusty has fun commentating over the Hart Army & the Bounty Hunter, Giant Baba!, attacking him before Dusty and the babyfaces finally clear the ring. OK footage.

Strong Kobayashi c vs. Rusher Kimura IWA Heavyweight Title 2 of 3 Falls (7/9/73) Nobody's going to confuse these two with the greats of Japanese professional wrestling, but they went out there and had their match. One thing I appreciated about it was that instead of lying in holds all day, which Kimura, in particular, didn't know how to work, they quickly started beating the shit out of each other and worked short falls with plenty of bomb throwing. Much better than the alternative.

Juan Botana vs. Yanek Fryziuk (aired 7/25/65) At some point in the mid-60s, Jean Fryziuk started going by the name of Yanek Fryziuk (possibly meant to be Janek Fryziuk), but he was still recognizable by those amazing punches. And boy did Botana make for a fantastic punching bag. This looked like a barrel of fun. Fryziuk is great.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas (12/1/95) This was a good title match, but on first watch, I wouldn't call it a lost or overlooked classic. It was most notable for being one of the least formulaic matches I've seen Santo work. He did very few of his signature spots, and his sole focus was on making Casas submit. It was quite a minimalistic title match in that sense. I thought the first two falls lacked the intensity and urgency that the occasion demanded. Casas was in control for much of the early going, and I'm still not sure how I feel about him as a mat worker. He's not bad on the mat, but he's definitely more exciting when he's kicking and chopping opponents. Santo looked much stronger on the mat and some of his counters were fantastic. The intensity lifted in the tercera, and Casas had some brilliant escapes, but I wasn't sold on the finish. I really wanted to add this to the canon, so to speak, but I liked the September match more, and I'm leaning towards thinking that Santo vs. Casas is a better brawling match up than a technical one. Story wise, this adds some context to the Santo heel turn as losing the match seemed to really peeve Santo.

Don Leo Jonathan vs. Strong Kobayashi (IWE 5/2/1972) So, Strong Kobayashi died the other day, and I was in the convenience store and I saw it made the front page of the sports newspaper, so I thought I should watch a Kobayashi match. This match isn't for the faint of heart as the crowd is practically mute. There are a lot of strength spots, as you'd imagine from this match-up, but they also use a lot of flips (Jonathan seems to like taking bumps off flips.) Kobayashi does some decent head scissors work, but he's not exact a mat wiz. The match picks up once Jonathan starts brawling, and I really liked his boxing spots. Jonathan is a guy we never talk about even though we should. There's a confusing restart in this, and Kobayashi wins against the run of play, but overall it was decent.