ohtani's jacket

Johnny Valentine vs. Bob Bruggers (Mid-Atlantic, 1970s) -- this clip gives you an insight into what the beginning of a Johnny Valentine match was like. Maybe a little slow for some people's tastes, but you can see the same clear psychology that's in Greg's matches, i.e. grab a hold and don't let go. Johnny Valentine vs. George Steele -- another match that shows the basic Johnny Valentine lock up, punch combos, and elbow drop that were the foundation of his offense. Super Destroyer & Johnny Valentine vs. Sonny King & Swede Hanson -- great looking performance from Valentine, who, accounting for inflation, made Sonny King look like a trillion dollars in today's money. Johnny Valentine vs Johnny Weaver -- Two fantastic looking clips with tremendous heat. Valentine sold Weaver's sleeper like a life or death struggle.

I thought about Jaguar vs. Lioness as well, but that has more to do with the match and not Jaguar or Lioness as workers. It would be a different story if it was the only footage we had of Jaguar or Lioness, and even then, if we got the match in full, we could still learn a lot about them as workers even if the match wasn't a lost classic. When I watch a newsreel clip of Londos, I think about how low his center of gravity is, how amazing his leg strength is, the flying tackle style of setting up the finish, the takedowns and the submission work he does. I know he wasn't a shooter, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a good worker. The newsreel stuff is largely highspots and finishes, but you can start building the picture the same way Loss used to say you could build a picture of a 70s Flair match from the garbage tapes (my apologies in advance if I misquoted what Loss said.) Since you mentioned film, we have the same footage issues with silent films. Lots of destroyed footage. Doesn't stop people championing the great directors of the silent era. The same with music. The Destroyer argument I feel is a genuine one. I think you could make the same argument for Jack Brisco and Billy Robinson. Forget about Londos and everyone before the 70s for a second. How can you compare what we have of Destroyer, Brisco & Robinson to Bryan Danielson's entire career? We have these matches from Japan... Well, ok, but what about all the stuff Destroyer did in LA, Brisco in Florida, and Robinson in the UK? Those are MASSIVE missing pieces. We clearly have more footage of Destroyer, Brisco and Robinson than Londos, and a better idea of what a complete match looks like (albeit in a limited number of territories), but people are still making concessions.

Why do we need to have three full matches to judge a worker? Why can't we judge them based on a bunch of clips? There's a difference between workers where we barely have anything and workers where we have enough clips to form an opinion. Londos vs. Bronko may be clipped, but even in clipped form, it's still one of the best matches we have from the era. Obviously, there's a chance that the full match wouldn't be as good, or that there were other matches from the era that were better, but this isn't Greatest Match Ever. It's possible to watch the Londos/Bronko footage and be impressed by his ringwork. If you're impressed by his ringwork, then why isn't he a viable candidate? Do we really need to be able to pick apart his career the way we do with other candidates? I get why it's not fair to push Londos based on limited footage while other wrestlers get full critiques, but at the end of the day, people still vote for workers who impress them regardless of what others say. At a certain point, we have to accept that there are certain candidates that we're not going to get new footage of because of how limited the technology was in their era. Do we ignore guys like Londos, or do we embrace the history of recorded professional wrestling? We're not talking about someone like Mildred Burke or Enrique Torres where we have one or two clips period. People are happy to vote for the Destroyer when we are missing huge chunks of his career just because we have a few matches from Japan. Why can't we watch every Le Petit Prince match on tape and not think he is phenomenal when people will dismiss Dynamite Kid based on a couple of Tiger Mask matches they don't like? Do I really need to watch every mediocre Casas match to validate my opinion of him? Judge things for yourself. We all know a handful of people will vote for niche wrestlers and the majority will vote for the Bryan Danielsons. Let the voters decide whether they should really vote for Dick Shikat. The last time we did this poll, I was surprised when historical candidates appeared that I hadn't head of. That led me down the path of watching 1950s footage. If you don't allow for those types of votes, there's a chance that someone out there won't discover workers like Londos.

Wahoo McDaniel vs Johnny Valentine 1974 -- When people think of Wahoo McDaniel vs. Johnny Valentine, I guess they think of the chops and clubbing blows, but what this clip showcases is Valentine's masterful selling. He sells in a very slow, deliberate way to the point where when he finally takes a bump it's like a redwood falling down. He was brilliant at selling exhaustion and putting over blood loss, and he would make those fantastic choking expressions with his eyes bulging and his tongue poking out. The match feels strangely paced because of the cuts. There's no way to tell how well they transitioned between heat segments, and a lot of the heat is on the ref, which isn't something I enjoy in professional wrestling, but the big takeaway here is Johnny's great selling. Wahoo McDaniel vs Johnny Valentine (studio confrontation 6/74) -- this was clipped, but it must exist somewhere in full. Wahoo is on fire here. He pummels the crap out of Valentine. Harley Race vs. Johnny Valentine - NWA St. Louis 3/7/1975 -- Talk about the perfect opponent for Harley. This is everything you'd want from a true Harley Race match. Harley is at his best when he's working guys over with that short little punch of his. Johnny Valentine is one of the all-time great brawlers and sellers, and he can dish out the punishment as well. Johnny Valentine vs. Johnny Weaver with Bearcat Wright as referee 1974 -- Brother, this had some amazing standing punch exchanges. Johnny took over at the end too, which is something that's perhaps been missing from these other clips. I actually liked the ref shtick here. Johnny Valentine vs. Paul Jones (cage match) 1975 -- this was more of a fence match than a cage match, but amazing heat for Jones, and great, stalking heel work from Valentine. Jones' bladejob looks great. Valentine works like a monster. Again, you can't really tell how well paced the match was, but you can see the patterns in how Valentine worked to the point where you can pretty much imagine what happened between the cuts.

Armand Zarpa/ Luc Straub vs. Marcel Manneveau/Pierre Bernaert (aired 7/2/65) Nothing flashy about this one. In fact, it felt closer to straight pro-wrestling than French Catch. The work was solid, and you could tell that everyone involved was a decent worker, but Zarpa and Straub weren't the most charismatic of babyfaces, and for some reason this was the least showy that Manneveau has been. Bernaert also stayed inside his shell. Which isn't to say the match was boring. It just didn't have the heat, or the wild and flashy moments, you expect from Catch.

Fit Finlay vs. 2 Cold Scorpio '(Bremen 11/27/94) This felt like a transplanted New Japan juniors match, but I guess that was the way European wrestling was heading in the early 90s. Finlay took too much of the match, which is prone to do at times. The German crowd popped for Scorpio's dives, which was the coolest thing about the match. We all know Scorpio through tape trading and what not, but hearing the reaction for him from a live crowd in Germany in '94 was cool.

Bestia Salvaje & El Brazo, & Emilio Charles, Jr. vs. Hector Garza & La Fiera & Negro Casas (7/21/95) This was built around a feud between El Brazo and Hector Garza that I couldn't give two shits about, though Garza does do a nasty bladejob. and El Brazo is a sick motherfucker licking Garza's blood off his hands. Casas doesn't do much. He has a pretty good exchange with Bestia at the start, but how many times have we seen that? I do not like El Brazo. Bestia Salvaje & Felino & Ray Gonzalez vs. El Dandy & Negro Casas & Ultimo Dragon (8/11/95) This was part of the build for Dandy vs. Gonzalez. Gonzalez wasn't anything special as a worker, but at least he was new opponent for Dandy. This had some great action between Bestia & Felino and Negro & Ultimo. They were really busy here. More than usual for a match with a through line like Dandy/Gonzalez. Watching Felino square off with Casas was a treat. Casas has been playing a lot of boring tecnico roles in these mid-'95 matches, but this had some great work.

Bobby Nelson & Bert Ruby vs. The Great Balbo & Sam Hallock (3/18/52) This was a match from Fred Kohler's television show, Wrestling From Rainbo Arena, which aired on the ABC Network. The commentator was Wayne Griffith. The first two falls have some nice action. Ruby & Balbo were really good. Ruby was a barefoot Hungarian, and as we know, Hungarian wrestlers are generally excellent. About halfway through, Ruby & Balbo finally lock up and have a breathtaking exchange that is incredibly skillful. Things slow down a bit in the third fall, and the finish isn't the greatest, but definitely worth watching for Ruby & Balbo. I think we have a couple of other Balbo matches, but this is the only Ruby that I know of.

How long until Bill SImmons is on the pod?

His real name should be Ken the Wooden Training Dummy.

I finished the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon Punisher mini-series. I guess Ennis' take on the Punisher character wasn't bad, and Dillon's art was all right, but the sophomoric attempts at black humour were too much for me. I also read the re-colourized collection of Dave Stevens' Rocketeer. I normally dislike re-colouring of older comics, but I have to admit it was a pretty good colouring job. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with the quality of Stevens' work. It's just a shame that the stories up and end just when it's getting good. Another thing I finished was Terry Moore's original Strangers in Paradise mini-series. This was a series I was aware of back in the 90s but didn't really know what it was all about. The art was slightly more cartoony than I was expecting, but I liked the overall dynamic. I could easily have seen myself picking this series up in the 90s alongside Bone and the other titles I was reading. And I also made it to the end of the first arc of John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake's Spectre. I know I've read this series before, but I can't recall if I made it through to the very end. It was so long ago that it feels like I'm reading it again for the first time. I don't entirely love the first arc, but the last three issues are some of the most intense stuff I've read in a while. I guess I had completely forgotten the details of the story because the finale hit me like a ton of bricks and the last panel is flat out amazing. It's a really grim and gritty 90s comic, but the storytelling is uncompromising, especially for a non-Vertigo book. I finished the 40th volume of Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom, which marks the halfway point in the series. It was easily the most impressive volume of the manga for me personally. I ran through a gamut of emotions, almost cried, gave the book a clap of applause, was taken aback by the depth of the storytelling, and was overwhelmed that Hara had stayed so committed to the manga for ten years. What I thought was a good manga has now been elevated to the next level.

I personally feel like I've seen enough footage of Johnny Valentine to know what he was like as a worker. What I don't know is how many great Johnny Valentine matches there are. If I'm making a list based on good guys were, then Valentine is a lock. If I'm leaning more toward output, then he might make it on the end of the list as a personal pick. There are a lot of workers i love with even less footage than Valentine. I can't justify voting for someone we might have one or two matches from. Valentine I wouldn't feel guilty about. In some cases, I don't need to see more. Do I really need to see more Londos to know that he was great? Or more Thesz? I mean, I would like to, but it's probably not going to happen. The fact that I already think they're great from a small sample size suggests that they were pretty freakin' good. It's possible that if we got more Valentine or Thesz footage that we'd discover that the average Valentine/Thesz match was nothing special, but that's true for pretty much every worker ever. I don't think it would lower my opinion of them that much.

Who is Tony Nese? Is he good?

For the 50s, I would go with Thesz. 60s is probably someone from Europe. The first half of the 70s was either Jack Brisco or Johnny Valentine.

Greg Valentine Demonstrates The Power Of His Elbow Drop (Championship Wrestling From Florida) (1976) -- footage of a young Greg Valentine breaking karate boards with his elbow drop. Ivan Koloff & Mr. Saito vs. Rocky Johnson & Pedro Morales (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- this is one of the longer clips from Florida. You get the sense that it covers every stage of the match. It's exactly what you'd expect from the teams involved. Koloff & Saito were interesting to watch. The heels refused to leave the ring at the end, so Andre and Ivan Putski showed up and cleared the ring. Andre beating up Masa Saito isn't something I expected to see this morning. Good footage. Pat Patterson vs. Angelo Poffo (January 11th, 1977) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- Poffo was in his early 50s here and still in pretty good shape. Pat worked babyface. He was never the smoothest of wrestlers, but he seemed particularly sloppy here. OK footage. Andre The Giant Wins A Battle Royal (April 16th, 1974) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- This ends up being Andre vs the Hollywood Blondes, and Andre gives the crowd their money's worth. He even does a spot that looks like something out of French catch. Worth watching as a reminder of how mobile and athletic Andre was at this point. Decent footage. Harley Race & Bob Roop vs. Rocky Johnson & Cyclon Negro (July 8th, 1975) (CWF) -- Jeez, Roop bumped like a madman in this. Cyclon Negro had such a cool look. Black tights, taped wrists, and a thick beard. I don't always love Harley as a stooge, but he had a good reason to stooge here. Roop was excellent throughout. The story Solie spun was that Roop was hellbent on putting Rocky Johnson out of wrestling. I've been digging Roop here and there as the second guy in tags, but this is the first time I've really enjoyed him as the lead guy. I'd love to see more of this feud. Very good footage.

I kept debating with myself whether I should watch this. I was hoping it would be two fat boys slapping the shit out of each other, but I knew there was a high chance it would be a whole bunch of nothing. Well, I'll be damned if it wasn't a seriously good match. The Osaka crowd was molten, and instead of being all slap happy, they went out there and had a wrestling match. Normally, Kojima's theatrics would turn me off, but the crowd was so hyped and Kojima was so into it, that I couldn't help but dig it. Two guys trying their damndest to win in front of a hot crowd. Can't ask for much more than that. A pleasant surprise.

Nice lightweight match between Spanky and my boy, Bobby Quance. I appreciate the grapple-first approach of indy wrestling even among the lightweights. This was tight, and built from the ground up, instead of being a dizzying string of highspots. Strong outing for both guys.

This played out exactly as you'd imagine. Amano took the fight to Aja. Aja gave her more than she probably should have. Amano rocked Aja but came up desperately short. It's the same formula that Aja works with every girl works with every girl that's below her in the pecking order. But even though you know what's going to happen, it's still super enjoyable. Amano is a great match up for Aja because she works like a shooter, not a highflyer, which makes this closer to ARISON than typical Joshi. Recommended.

I made it through all nine issues of the Howard the Duck Magazine. I'm not a fan of Howard the Duck, but I thought it was one of the better black and white Marvel mags. Mantlo is more concerned with continuity than Gerber. He wraps up loose ends from the color series. and even gives characters like the Kidney Lady an origin (which may not please some Gerber HtD fans.) There is plenty of satire, but it's not as outrageous as Gerber's work. There's some obligatory nudity in the early issues, and an infamous bedroom scene between Bev and Howard, but eventually they ditch the adult approach. Howard works as a cabbie in Cleveland for a while, becomes a vampire, returns to Duckworld, and eventually breaks up with Bev. Mantlo had a plan to have Howard become a huge TV star overnight, plummet out of popularity overnight, end up as an attraction at the Los Angeles zoo, and be reunited with Bev, leading to a wedding. However, he quit the series, and they decided to can the black and white magazine. They claimed he was returning to the world of color comics but that never materialized. The magazine's biggest strength is its art. Colon's work looks better in black and white, and when Colon's not penciling the stories, you get art from John Buscema, Michael Golden, and even a Marshall Rogers Batman parody. There's even a pin-up page by Dave Sim. If you want to read about the further adventures of Howard after Gerber departs then the magazine is the closest thing to the original, and blows other black and white mags like Dracula out of the water.

My general rule of thumb for Inoki is that that match ought to be from the 70s and it's better if it's against a native talent.

Gilbert Leduc/Claude Montourcy vs. Karl von Kramer/Robert Gastel (aired 5/26/65) This was a little run-of-the-mill to start with but turned into quite the spectacle. The first half mostly involved the faces embarrassing the heels to the delight of the crowd. Naturally, there's only so much embarrassment that heels will tolerate. That's when things to start to escalate, and where they can get out of control. And that's what happened here. Suddenly, this violent brawl erupted. Von Kramer was knocked out, and Gastel was forced to continue the match on his own. Rather than submit meekly to his opponents, Gastel fought and headbutted his way back into the match. He bust Montourcy open in a rare display of blood on French TV, and kept fighting like a wounded animal against Leduc. One of the more exciting finishes to a French match. It turned the bout on its head and totally changed the dynamic, and the tone, of what they had been doing. Early on, von Kramer excelled in the early action, but the final two falls were a reminder that this man Gastel could brawl. Memorable bout, for sure.

Atlantis, Negro Casas & Vampiro vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Jason The Terrible & Pierroth Jr. (3/14/95) This wasn't the greatest, but it was better than it looked on paper thanks to Atlantis, Casas, Emilio & Pierroth keeping busy. Head Hunter I, Head Hunter II & Pierroth Jr. vs. Mil Mascaras, Negro Casas, & Vampiro (7/14/95) Quite a long gap between TV appearances for Casas. He had a specific role to play here in a match with so many bigs. I wouldn't call it the best use of Negro Casas, but he played his role dutifully if you're the type that cares about sort of things. I like the way CMLL treated the Head Hunters as unbeatable badasses. Mil Mascaras made one of those random CMLL appearances of his (that never seem to be a big deal.) I was kind of shocked to see him job.

I've been reading quite a lot of stuff, but nothing that makes me want to read it every single day. I'm slowly working my way through the early Sgt. Rock stories in Our Army at War. I like the art, and I like the Sarge, but the stories are repetitive. It feels like I've read the same three stories half a dozen times. I've also been reading Doom Patrol and Metal Men in small doses. They're the type of quirky Silver Age titles I enjoy, but I can't read more than an issue per week because of how repetitive the stories are, not to mention the attitude that Doc Magnus has toward women. I began reading Planetary because it's on the CBR Top 100 list. I found it a bit smug at first, largely because I find Warren Ellis to be a bit smug, but it's slowly growing on me. I don't particularly care about all of the references to other comic books, but I do like a good mystery, and the art is impressive. I also began reading Ennis and Dillion's Punisher mini-series because it's on the same list. I don't know why I keep expecting something of substance from the Punisher. I should just accept it as an action flick. I thought Ennis would bring more to the table, but all he brought was a body count, and some of his worse traits from Hellblazer and Preacher, which usually involve mutilation. The part with the zoo animals was moronic to me. I was inspired recently to read Lone Wolf & Cub again. It's certainly a great work of art, though personally I have had my fill of Samurai stories. Flaming Carrot is a lot of fun. That's probably the best title I'm reading at the moment. I love Bob Burden's offbeat sense of humour. The book has some great one liners in it. Mr.X is also good. I was disappointed that the Hernandez brothers left so soon, but Love and Rockets is one of my all-time favorite comic book series, so I guess it was for the greater good. I've been struggling to get into Grimjack despite liking the creators involved but I'm persevering with it for the time being. I started a re-read of Ostrander's Spectre as well, and that's not holding up as well as I remembered, so perhaps I am not as fond of Ostrander as I thought.

Florida Tag Team Title Match: The Hollywood Blondes (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dick Slater (3-26-74) -- Slater accidently hits Dusty with a knee from the top rope, and later on, Dusty refuses to tag and walks out on Slater. Decent Funk style selling from Slater, but you know Terry would have done it better. The Hollywood Blondes seem like one of those teams that is legendary for doing the most basic heelwork possible. Decent footage. Florida Tag Team Title Match (No DQ): Pak Song & Mr. Uganda (c) vs. Dusty Rhodes & Jos LeDuc (1978) -- There seems to have been a sea change in the Florida territory from the early 70s Jack Brisco era to the late 70s Dusty era. I can safely say that I prefer the early 70s, but then I prefer my US wrestling to be as old as it can get. I don't know which era drew more, but I can't deny that Dusty drew a shit ton of heat even in a run-of-the-mill bout like this. OK footage. U.S. Tag Team Title Match: Killer Karl Kox & Jim Garvin vs. Bob Roop & Dick Slater (12-05-78) -- I don't know which is stranger here, Jimmy Garvin as a young up-and-coming wrestler or Killer Karl Kox as a babyface. This was really good. All four guys were excellent in their roles here. Garvin had great fire, Kox was brilliant as the veteran partner, and Roop and Slater were as good as I've seen them. Great footage. Florida Tag Team Title Tournament (December 6th, 1977) (Championship Wrestling From Florida) -- highlights of the tag tournament. Highlights include Rocky Johnson losing his shit against Killer Karl Kox, the tag team of Mr. Saito & Ivan Koloff, and another tremendous looking bout between the Briscoes and Graham & Keirn. The final is a bizarre piece of matchmaking as Saito & Koloff take on The Masked Marauders. Saito & Koloff win the titles in a cakewalk. Good footage. Bob Orton Jr. Workout Video (Championship Wrestling From Florida) (1976) -- the first half of this is film of Bob Orton Jr working out. Great if you're into that sort of thing. Then his dad talks about wanting Bob to take part in Superstars, which was a TV show that pitted top athletes against each other in a variety of challenges. I believe OJ Simpson won it the year before this clip. Bob Jr has a pronounced stammer. We see some footage of Bob running and cycling, and playing tennis. All this really accomplished was to let me know that young Bob Orton Jr was a fit guy. Don't bother.

Fun six man action. If you want to see good trios wrestling outside of Mexico, it doesn't get much better than Osaka Pro. Really polished, smooth, six-man action. It appears that Murahama was working more like a junior after his killer rookie year, which is a shame, but I suppose it helped him get bookings in other places. Black Buffalo is as solid as ever. What a great hand he was. A true professional. Everyone else chips in with nice spots. Refreshing match.