ohtani's jacket

The problem is that nobody outside of Jetlag, and I suppose strangers who don't post on this site, has watched Jd' in decades. Hell, even Jetlag going through GAEA feels fresh since it's a long time since anyone cared about that promotion. And even that the height of Joshi fandom, nobody cared about LLPW. So, you're basically left with people cherry picking the best parts of certain Joshi pro-wrestlers' careers, which isn't entirely fair when other women have their entire careers held up to scrutiny. I'm generally in the camp that only cares about a wrestler's best work, and I don't think people have the time or inclination to go through the best and worst of every person they're considering voting for, but I do think that if you feel strongly about a candidate (Asuka, for example), and people have negative things to say about that candidate, that you ought to take a look at that footage, judge it for yourself, and see if it has any impact on how you view the candidate. Heck, you might even have an interesting counter argument about the matches or the work. Also, I think there has been a shift in people's mentality over the years where post-prime work has become increasingly valued. Maybe that's just me getting old, but I know I definitely value post-prime work more highly than I did when I was younger. We've seen a lot of great work from older wrestlers since the original poll, and in some cases that's all we have from certain workers' careers. I am pretty sure that if Chigusa, Lioness and Jaguar had strong post-prime careers that it would definitely work in their favour. Otherwise you're shoehorning them into that period where the Matsunagas thought they were of any use, and I kind thought people were opposed to their business practices these days.

It was such a long time ago that we were watching the Terry stuff. Did he do much after the Wotan match? I feel like his candidacy needs a shot in the arm. The same with Navarro.

He has these super long singles matches that are brutal. A few of them are against Carpentier, who I don't really at all in France. I tend to think of Bollet as a tag guy. I think that's what suited him best. It's also an expectations thing. At first he seemed like an Arn Anderson type, or even a Mick McManus type, but he didn't maintain that level. That's kind of my fault though for anointing him too soon.

Check out Bull and Dump cruising around NYC.

I really liked his early appearances in the 50s, but I ended up getting so frustrated with him later on. I will probably be on the outlier on that as the Segunda Caida chaps are a lot nicer than me. Having said that, it's pretty late into the 60s when it starts to bother me, and Catch itself isn't the greatest by that stage.

Someone needs to pimp some 80s matches to watch because Asuka was great in the 80s was not a commonly held opinion the last time I was involved in any discussion of her. My impression of her was that she refused to sell for her opponents and ate up huge portions of the match on offense. The Chigusa singles matches were considered messes (personally, I like them in the same way that I like Toyota vs. Yamada matches), and the Jaguar match was considered inferior to the Devil/Chigusa match from the same show. If opinion has swung the other way, it seems to be off-site somewhere. Can we get a bit more to go on than Lioness was great? As far as judging her career goes, it's pretty clear that she had two distinct periods -- her 80s work and her 90s and 00s work. If you ignore the later then you're ignoring half of her career. Not just a few bad years at the end, but the entire second half of her career. if you like Asuka then you'll be more inclined to enjoy some of her later work. I saw her live in 2004 and together with Chigusa, she was better than another else on the card. It might not hold up that way on TV, but live she got a bigger reaction than favorites like Yoshida and Satomura. She was working against Nagashima, though, who was also good live. That Jaguar Jd' match Jetlag pimps is good. I'm sure there are other good performances. Go into bat for her if you like her that much.

Bob had a crazy amount of good matches. More than dozens of workers who rank above him. I like him pretty much every time I see him (most recently in the Patterson cage match which gets the highest recommendation from yours truly.) But I still don't feel compelled to vote for him. I think it's because his best stuff is in equal part due to the other guy. Bob is great foil for workers I enjoy , but I'm not sure I'd want to watch Bob against anyone. That's not the case with my favorite workers, But I do respect Bob, and I'd be super excited to see a new match unearthed if it was against the right guy.

Bull started a YouTube channel where she talks about her career. Her most memorable match is Bull & Grizzly vs. Aja & Bison, fwiw.

But we're Gokuaku Domei. Our songs are better, and we're gonna get her.

This channel is amazing -- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZCzVeidYnFshsihtS9RXsQ/videos

I don't see a problem with voting for Londos based on the Shikat and Nagurski footage, as well as the newsreel clips. There should be a place for historical candidates on the list.

I have nothing negative to say about Virus. I hope people check out his work as a mini. Those are lucha classics.

The Nobuhiko Takada of women's wrestling.

Baba could have put Jumbo over in any of the 1980-82 Carnivals, but their matches always went to a 30 minute draw. I'm not sure why Baba won the Carnival in '81 and '82. I'm pretty sure Jumbo would have benefitted more than Baba from winning those tournaments.

King Haku/Rayo de Jalisco, Jr./Vampiro vs. Black Magic/Pirata Morgan/Sangre Chicana (CMLL 2/19/93) No, Mike Tenay didn't get his WAR and CMLL tapes mixed up, this is an actual CMLL main event from 1993. Vampiro gets a music video before the match. Isn't he special. Haku is the captain of his team. Does he even know the rules? This is a long, boring match. Some people might get a kick out of Pirata and Chicana eating Haku's offense, but I zoned out.

I have a problem with his facial hair during his broken down phase.

Damn, we're missing the episode with Apolo Dantes vs. Titan and Blondy vs. Brazo. But no crying over lost footage. Atlantis/Mascara Magica/Pierroth, Jr. vs. Kahoz/Mano Negra/Negro Casas (CMLL 2/19/93) This was part of the Mano Negra vs. Atlantis feud, which built to one of the most disappointing matches in Atlantis' career. We'll see where the build-up takes us. It's not bad here. The highlight is a spectacular, Santo-esque dive from Atlantis in the deciding fall. But we're not here to talk about Atlantis/Negra. This match has an absolutely phenomenal, tour de force performance from Negro Casas. You really need to see it for yourselves, but basically he pairs off with Mascara Magica at the start of the match, and he's a really dick to Magica. He treats him like a joke and after he throws him a couple of times, he waves him off and tags out. Magica is insulted and doesn't want to leave the ring, but Casas refuses to come back in. Then Pierroth steps in and heads over to the apron and slaps Casas. Casas leaps back into the ring and Magica outwrestles him badly. That doesn't sit well with Casas who spends the second fall beating the shit out of Magica. Pierroth is pissed and decides to take matters into his own hands. You have to remember that Pierroth was a heavyweight at this stage and much larger than Casas. He starts bitch slapping Casas like you wouldn't believe. Casas does the fake foul jumping on your knees spot that Satanico is so fond of, and Pierroth, who's not afraid of being rude, bitch slaps Casas so hard he goes flying out of the ring. Pierroth gets a tissue or some cloth from the crowd and rubs Casas' face with it, and Casas is getting manhandled at this point. He ends up get outworked by Magica in their tercera exchange and disappears into the crowd where he ends up shoving a fan. Magica forces him to submit at the end, and if you watch the replay you can see how Casas tries to fight it instead of submitting limply. Wow. This is why I'm always telling people that Casas wasn't as good in his older age as he was in his prime. It's also the reason why I've tried to explain that the early 00s are a down point for him. This match was Casas at the peak of his powers. A pure and unadulterated wrestling genius. Oh yeah, and Kahoz is also in this match.

All right, so I don't like the DiBiase/Murdoch feud at all. Babyface Ted is boring. Why did they turn him? I do not need babyface Ted DiBiase in my life. Save it for the birds. #YourebetterthanthisTed

I had put off watching the Metalico match until now. Great match. Nothing compares to high stakes lucha libre. Does anybody know how CMLL TV works these days? Do CMLL live stream it? I wanted to watch the lead-in matches, but I can't find them anywhere.

Are you talking about their 1996 G1 climax match? That exists on tape. They also had a tag match from the night before -- Hashimoto/Black Tiger vs. Regal/Bagwell. There's a Regal/Taylor tag from the same tour, but that has to be clipped.

Also, don't forget that from April 3rd, 1981 to October 18th, 1985, All Japan didn't air during prime time. They actually lost their prime time spot in April of '79, but there were a few special primetime broadcasts during '79-81. This led to a major upheaval in All Japan management that KinchStalker covered in his translation of Jumbo's biography. The root cause was Baba's decline and Jumbo's failure to capture the public's imagination as an ace, as well as New japan trouncing All Japan in the ratings, but the deeper problem was that Baba never put Jumbo over. There was a suggestion that their relationship wasn't great around the time of the attempted coup. Over and over again in Osano's book, you get the sense that Jumbo was prevented from acquiring the skills he lacked to be a true ace. In a sense, it's unfair on Jumbo to say that business was in the toilet so Tenryu begged Baba to let him feud with Jumbo, which lit a fire under Jumbo and awakened the monster within. But it's not factually wrong. The thing hardcore fans love about "grumpy" Jumbo is how he uses his full strength. Jumbo was an intellectual and a classicist. He enjoyed wrestling the older mat style that he was reared on. But in the eyes of the fans, and some wrestlers, he was holding back. The book actually goes into detail about how good of an amateur he was and again there are claims that Choshu and Yatsu were stronger. Jumbo is remembered far more fondly these days, including among his contemporaries from the era. Choshu was hell bent on tearing down the establishment in the 80s, but now that he's an old man, he's a lot more open and always speaks of Jumbo highly. Tenryu as well, even though they had a complicated history. When Jumbo retired, he said the one guy he wished he'd fought was Akira Maeda. Now there's a match I could go for.

That's the commonly held belief among hardcore fans, and the writers/editors that Dave was in contact with, but I'm not sure how many hardcore fans actually watched both promotions religiously. I've always been under the assumption that you were either a New Japan fan or an All Japan fan, a bit like WWF and WCW fans. The hot periods seem to be when the TV became popular among casual fans (many of them young fans and families.) I'll see what I can find.

Black Magic/Fabuloso Blondy/Pirata Morgan vs. Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata/El Brazo (CMLL 1/29/93) If you like Ken Timbs, he is all over TV at this point. Personally, I watched this for Pirata Morgan, but he didn't do much. I was kind of hoping he would tear it up with Brazo de Oro, but it didn't come to fruition. Some fun exchanges between Porky and Smiley, as you can imagine, but the focus is mostly on Timbs vs. Brazo, and some standard looking Pirata Morgan bumps hardly makes for a watchable trios match. Bestia Salvaje/Mano Negra/Titan vs. Apolo Dantes/Lasser Tron/Oro (CMLL 2/5/93) Short match dominated by the rudos, but it reminded me of the things I like about older CMLL. Mano Negra was feuding with Oro, who was carrying a shoulder injury that must have occurred in an earlier match, and Dantes was feuding with Titan. So, you had those two storylines being progressed while Salvaje complemented the main feuds by beating the shit out of Lasser Tron. The storylines in play both end in singles matches. so we get story progression and a payoff. Wow, CMLL. El Brazo/El Dandy/Pierroth, Jr. vs. Emilio Charles, Jr./Fabuloso Blondy/Kahoz (CMLL 2/5/93) This was a much better match than the week before. Blondy went after Brazo with a foreign object and bust him open in the opening minutes, then the rest of the bout was built around Brazo slowing getting some revenge, If Brazo worked like this all the time, he wouldn't be the shittiest Brazo. I wonder if they can maintain this intensity in their hair match. At least my interest is piqued. Dandy instantly made this a better match than it would have been without him. He didn't even do that much. He simply knew how to react to the main storyline and put over the damage Blondy was doing to Brazo. He cut lose with Emilio during one stretch (another of his old rivals), and looked like 1990 Dandy for a second. Perhaps it's my imagination, but Dandy's fitness and conditioning seems to vary from week to week. Pierroth is great as well, though he doesn't have any signature moment. BTW, I love cinema, and I love classic Mexican cinema, but some of the films they advertise during the breaks are atrocious looking.

Incidentally, one of my side hobbies is Japanese music, and a lot of the folk stuff that Jumbo was into is really good. Hope you're doing okay, MoS. The news is full of stories out of India right now.

I am determined to watch as much Lothario as I can, and Houston too for that matter.