ohtani's jacket

That is some massive praise, but I'm not gonna say you're wrong.

I just think it's an overused metaphor. You can have Shintenno for pretty much anything at this point. I think people get carried away with it when describing the All Japan guys, I guess because it sounds cool. They were called Shitenno by fans and media, and their style of wrestling was referred to as Shintenno Pro-Wrestling, so it's not wrong. I just think it's something people shouldn't be overly reverent about. Shintenno gets used in the entertainment business all the time. There are Shintenno for everything from impersonators to karaoke singers. I don't know when people first started using the term in English to describe the All Japan guys. I don't understand where they got the word pillar from, but I guess it's part of the vernacular now.

The only times Casas is given something to do in 2000-02 is the Wagner program that we don't see because of the Olympics and every time Santo returns and they re-ignite the Guerrero & Bucanero feud. The rest of the time he's treading water. It makes sense after they ran Santo & Casas vs. Bestia & Scorpio into the ground, but at no point does Casas wow you in that secondary role. I just reached the point where Santo left again and the focus switched from Ultimo vs. Santo to Ultimo vs. Casas, and it's been a real letdown. There are a few positives. He adapted to the new style of wrestling well, and it makes sense that Santo and Casas are the team to consistently feud with Ultimo and Rey over the tag titles since they can work the modern style. I particularly like some of his strike exchanges around this time. But there are a few myths that need destroying, namely "Casas is brilliant in every match" and "Casas was the best in the world for every year of his career." Not true. He had runs like every other headliner. Ultimately, it's not going to matter to voters because they'll vote for the highs, and Casas' highs are all-time genius level, but I completely agree with Chad on this.

Well, it depends on how loosely you use the term great. Satanico, to me, was still a great worker in the early 90s. I don't love his AAA work, but the hair match with Morgan is one of my favorite Satanico bouts. He wasn't that great when he returned to CMLL, aside from the odd trios match here and here, until he earned back their trust and was given the opportunity to have the Tarzan Boy and GdI feuds. I am up to 2002 in my viewing and Satanico has looked great in every performance. I can't say the same for Fuerza. He's had one or two performances that show he wasn't isn't washed up, but even when he's given the perfect opportunity to shine in the trio with Wagner and Panther, he hardly does anything interesting. I can't understand why he's not able to do a great heel spot or something amusing. To be fair, Wagner hasn't been great either. Atlantis is always good. He's had some bad matches over the years, but he's carried the tecnico side in so many trios matches. He's the best tecnico trios match worker that I've seen. I don't want to sound too down on Fuerza. I'll see his praises to the moon if it's his earlier stuff, but I can't pretend that his later stuff isn't a disappointment.

Blue Panther vs. Gran Hamada (UWF 11/13/90) Good match. Neat hybrid between Hamada's UWA work and what Panther might have wrestled like if he'd been a junior. Blue Panther & Guerrero Negro vs. Huracan Sevilla & Gran Hamada (Monterrey 1991) You won't find too many bigger fans of Huracan Sevilla than me. I dig his run as Huracan Sevilla, and I think his hair match with Bestia is a low key classic. He's not really that good, but he sure as hell thinks he is, which is fun to watch. Very good tag match by lucha standards. Starts off on the mat and ends with a bunch of challenges being made. And in this case, Sevilla and Guerrero Negro made good on the challenge. Gran Hamada was a great luchador. Arguably, the best run by a Japanese worker in an overseas environment. Panther is Panther. Sevilla's tope is a big highlight. Villano III vs. Fishman (Monterrey 1991) Cool little title match that never reaches any great heights. I have a nagging feeling that a lot of Villano III single matches were like this. Decent tercera caida, and some cool looking holds throughout thanks to the masked luchador aesthetic.

I really hate the concept of Shitenno, which Western fans refer to as the Four Pillars. Don't get me started on King's Road. I think it's fairly simple. In the 90s, Misawa was the best. In the 00s, Kobashi was the best.

You guys are out to lunch! The Ryuma Go series, the Calgary match against Dynamite Kid, the Kimura matches, the Teranishi match, the Tony Rocco match, the freaking Ray Mendoza match, Fujinami was spectacular before the Choshu feud. There was a Fujinami boom in Japan prior to the Choshu feud. He was the number three guy in the promotion once he returned from his overseas excursion, replacing Strong Kobayashi who had slowed down by that point. Personality is a real sticking point. It's easy to say this guy had black trunks. a salaryman hair cut and no personality, but Japanese fans didn't think so. Personally. I think he was a brilliant wrestler as a junior, and perfectly fiery, but he also had the qualities in Japan that people value both in terms of his strength and his grace. That's why he continued to be popular throughout his career. I get the mentality of "now he's a veteran, and he's grumpy and showing more personality." I can see how people gravitate toward that, but his early work is full of virtue and aesthetics that couldn't help but appeal to Japanese fans.

The Bockwinkel/Oki match is a bit disappointing. That may be because it's clipped, but IWE Oki hasn't been very good so far.

It's not a question of longevity in terms of his career. The problem is that he stops being brilliant in the same way that Psicosis did, and Ohtani, and Mayumi Ozaki. It's lucha. Fuerza could have been 50 and still been entertaining as third guy in a trios match. I don't know how long his run was. I'd be interested to see if he was any good before Pena took over. I don't think six years is very favorable compared to Santo, Casas, Satanico, Panther, or Atlantis.

The 8/83 Duggan vs. DiBiase Loser Leaves Town Cage Match is awesome. #Tedfor2026

The Rockers were a tag team. I'm not really up for revisiting DiBiase & IRS right now. Savage's output was dramatically lower post 87 compared to the feuds with Tito and Steamboat. The Garvin vs. Valentine feud is good, but I don't think it makes a strong case for Garvin outshining DiBiase in the WWF. Piper had about the same output as Ted, maybe less. Bret wasn't really a territory guy in my view, and Dibiase helped make him as a singles wrestler. Bossman is awesome, but doesn't have a classic to his name unless you really love the Hogan cage match. Ted's one big shot was the Wrestlemania IV main event. If he'd had a classic match with Savage, the narrative would be different. I don't think he had a ton of opportunities after that. He wasn't in position to have a classic IC title match, and they didn't give him any real opportunities to have a classic with the Million Dollar Belt. So, basically you're left with ring general stuff against Bret, Shawn, Virgil, Dustin, or matches where they got eff all time in the ring like the bouts against Jake and Bossman. I just find it annoying when people say "Oh, Rude had the Warrior" match when pretty much nothing else Rude did in the WWF is as good.

What new Houston matches were there?

How much of that good stuff was from '87 onwards? Is it really Ted's fault that he never had a big IC title match? He had his own belt.

I’m not entirely convinced that any of the women mentioned are significantly better than Kansai. I guess Jaguar and Hokuto are their very best.

Fuerza was incredible under Pena in both CMLL and AAA but then it's a straight drop. Even when his stuff is decent, he's still not the same guy. The worst thing about it is that you lose all the schtick. There was always that one brilliant moment in every Fuerza performance where he did something completely phenomenal, but for some reason he stops doing it, and I can't figure out why as it mostly involved physical comedy. He just stops being entertaining. A brilliant performer under Pena, but a really short run by lucha standards.

This was a good match, but I found the result perplexing. Satomura looked extremely confident at the beginning of the bout and seemed to have grown into her role as the ace of the promotion and the leader of the next generation. She had dropped all of the 'young girl' selling and mannerisms that she sometimes prone to overdoing in matches against the veteran workers, and was working towards a more shoot style oriented moveset similar to when Chigusa came of age as a singles worker. Nagashima refused to be intimidated by the champ and took the match to her from the get-go. The early going was a brawl. There was a bit of crowd walking, but when they got back into the ring, the action was unrelenting. Satomura unleashed some awesome looking strikes on Nagashima, but she wasn't at that selfish veteran level where she refused to let anybody fight through her offense and land a few knockout blows. Nagashima is at heart a Toyota type, but she never backed down from an opponent and had a ton of fighting spirit. These two had been wrestling each other since GAEA began and both of them wanted the ultimate prize. The problem I had with the result wasn't that Nagashima stripped Satomura of the title. It's not like Nagashima wasn't a good worker. I like her a lot. The problem I had with the result was that after Satomura struggling for so long to beat Aja, and then finally taking the title from her, to have her drop it to Nagashima in a halfway decent match, felt like it took all of the steam out of Satomura's transformation into the GAEA ace. She fought so hard to overcome the challenges she faced then she drops the the title to her peer in pretty much no time at all. Not the call I would have made. Sorry, Nagashima.

I'm pretty sure I drove Parv nuts last time by claiming that The Big Bossman had a better WWF run than Ted. Ted has some good WWF stuff -- the early matches with Patterson, his performance in the '89 Rumble, his matches against Bret, the Virgil match, the Shawn match, a Savage match or two. He lacks that one definitive match, but how many of the territory guys had one? And even among the guys who did, take away Rude's carry of Warrior and his output is even thinner than Ted's. Now if you want to argue that his work against Hogan and Savage is disappointing, that's another story, but when it comes to late 80s-early 90s WWF, I feel like you need to adopt a Matt D approach to wrestling -- i.e. could Ted possibly have done a better job of putting over his feud with Dusty and Sapphire? I know damn well he couldn't have done a better job of feuding with Piper and Virgil. I wish this period of WWF had better matches, but it didn't, and so we're left making excuses.

Another cool chapter in their rivalry. These guys remind me a lot of Rey Mysterio Jr vs. Juventud Guerrera. Definitely watch it without the commentary, though.

This was awesome. Probably their best match yet. I could see that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets The Matrix sequence being loathsome if other workers began copying it, but it's something else when Low Ki and Red do it.

Fit Finlay vs. Steve Casey (Wien '94) This was a return bout from the week before. I don't remember too much about the first bout, but I didn't care for it much based on my comments above. The problem with these bouts is that they're mostly shitty house show matches. Casey is an interesting match-up for Finlay, but it's hardly a surprise that they're half-assing it on a house show. I didn't hate this, but they only really engaged in serious brawling a few times.

Poor Ted. Wasn't he voted the best wrestler on the Mid-South set? I've been rewatching the Duggan feud, and honestly if people hype up Sangre Chicana and Perro Aguayo then Ted should get hype for the "Doogan" feud alone.

The tecnicos mean business in this match with Casas back from his stretcher job, but the rudos aren't about to give them an inch. This is the type of tension you want from trios matches .Shocker is all over this match as The Man in CMLL at this point, and Magica is his mini-me right down to the hair, but surprisingly, Casas, who is out for revenge, winds up being the victim.

CMLL seems to be reigniting a few of its unresolved feuds. First it was Shocker vs. Tarzan Boy, then Atlantis vs. Wagner, and now Black Warrior vs. Black Tiger. It's been a great stretch for CMLL and this was another good match. It would have been better if Takemura had replaced Nosawa, but the positives far outweighed that negative. Niebla worked well with the Japanese guys, and I was excited to see Masada square off with Atlantis Black Tiger has been awesome throughout his run, and that tope from Warrior! This may not lead anywhere, but at least there was a clear through line and some great complementary match-ups.

Whatever I'm into right now.