ohtani's jacket

The 1967 Kosak match shows Oki could wrestle too. That adds another wrinkle to his case. Great use of the headbutts too. They have this cool wrestling match and then Kosak is gold at the end. You've got to see what happens when he tries to punch Oki.

I'm only half way through his run, but I will whip something up later.

Awesome. I haven't seen that clip in years. Felino vs. Panther used to be on the internet, but I guess it went poof.

I have come around a bit on Finlay's German work. There is some decent stuff there, and it's definitely better than his matches with Paula. I still prefer the work from the beginning and end of his career, but it's worth seeing at least a few of Finlay's German bouts.

This was another excellent bout. The focal points were the captains battle between Shocker and Tarzan Boy and the rivalry between Santo and Ultimo. The Santo vs. Ultimo Guerrero mask vs. mask match never happens, we know that in 2021, but I'm glad they ran with it as a follow up feud to the tag titles switch. It's an apuestas match I would have loved to have seen. Shocker and Tarzan Boy reignite their rivalry and have some excellent exchanges. We get a glimpse or two of Shocker vs. Ultimo in this, which feels like the future of lucha libre, but Shocker mostly works with Tarzan Boy, and I realized in this bout that I have fully accepted Tarzan Boy as a worker. I am now pretty much pro-Tarzan Boy and thought he looked great here .

This match was built around Atlantis vs. Dr. Wagner Jr, which is one of my favorite ongoing feuds in lucha. Fusion Lagunera have been dominant in a lazy way, and I haven't been thrilled with Wagner in 2002, but at least Atlantis got to kick some ass in this match. I was happy to see him fire up if nothing else.

You should check it out. I would rank it alongside the best DC Stuff I've read: Moore's Swamp Thing, Morrison's Doom Patrol and Animal Man, Gaiman's Sandman, Elllis' Transmetropolitan, and Ennis' runs on Preacher and Hellblazer.

http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=005317

A thousand thank yous. That was everything I hoped it would be.

I finished James Robinson's Starman today. I started off unsure whether I liked the main character and Robinson's dialogue and wound up heavily invested in the relationships between Jack, his father and brother, and the rest of the supporting cast. It was definitely a comic book for folks who grew up reading comic books, but it had plenty of heart. I was really impressed by the overall structure of the series and how all of the pieces fit. Robinson wasn't the first British writer to take DC property and reinvent it, but the way he built a mythos behind Starman was impressive. I'd definitely rank the series alongside any other series of its ilk, and I'll probably check out the spinoff titles at some point, but for now, I want to reflect on the journey. Starman is one of those books where there's a lot of foreshadowing and it's clear that things have been carefully planned in advance, but it's the emotional core of the book that truly matters. I feel like that was something that grew as the series developed. It went from being a book about collectibles, pop culture references, and comic book history callbacks, to a series about friendship, and family, and relationships, and children, and the sacrifices that heroes and their loved ones make, and mortality and death, and legacies and memories, and so many grand concepts. It was a heck of a book and a testament to Robinson's imagination.

The CFA released a Hans Schmidt match in colour. Unfortunately, it's against Yukon Eric so it's pretty slow going, but at least you get to see Schmidt in living colour.

I don't think they looked bad. The JBA were the only ones that had a proper run, though, I guess. Man, the Abdullah vs. Oki matches are everything you'd want them to be. I'm watching the second one right now and Oki attacking Abby's ribs with headbutts is incredible. I have to believe Yoshiaki Fujiwara saw these matches and thought they were the greatest thing ever. I also watched a crappy Animal Hamaguchi match. Animal Hamaguchi sucks. He's the kind of guy you assume must be good because of his name. Did he ever have a good match aside from the one against Jumbo?

One of my all-time favorite workers.

I don't get Otsuka. Everybody loves him. I feel like I wasn't invited to the party.

I thought Satanico was going to bow out on that amazing 2001 cage match, but every single performance I've seen from 2002 is excellent. His 2002 has actually been better than his 2001 so far. He's not the main guy in any of his matches, but he's outstanding in a secondary or third role, which is a tough role to nail.

I'm a lot higher on Panther than I was last time around after watching all of his early 00s stuff. I have a specific expectation for the type of Blue Panther match I want to see (Panther vs. Atlantis, some of the Santo matches), but unfortunately you don't get to see those types of matches very often because of the way lucha is booked, and the reality that the style of wrestling I like was more prevalent prior to lucha making tape. Watching his early 00s stuff, I was able to enjoy him on talent alone even when he wasn't being featured very prominently. That's one thing that's tough to swallow about lucha. Chad alluded to it the other day with Casas. When guys aren't being used, or they've had a main event run and are being dropped back down the card to make way for someone else, they get thrown into random trios matches and given little to do. Sometimes their talent shines through in random trios matches, or if you're lucky you get to see them working programs in other lucha territories, but it's a bugger when you see guys like Panther being under-utilized. One thing I do want to say about Panther as a candidate, and this is true for other candidates as well, is that I think he benefits from people pretty much only watching his most well known stuff. Now I could be wrong about that, but I have a feeling that not everyone sits through countless hours of meaningless lucha (which believe me, you shouldn't), but I think like it's easier for a candidate like Panther to stand out and criticisms to seem off base. Lucha candidates need a boost, but I think they should be held to the same standards as everyone else. Lastly, and this is a reach, if anybody has AWS Major Styles Clash lying around in a box somewhere, I have always hoped Panther vs. Dos Caras would magically appear on the internet some day.

He's definitely a formula guy, but probably one of the best formula guys ever.

Fujinami, Inoki, Dump, Bull, Chigusa, Lioness, Jumping Bomb Angels, Aja & the AJW crew, Hakushi, and early Taka and Sasuke looked okay.

The '93 G1 final was another good match. Fujinami was definitely one of the instigators of using the other guy's finisher, which became one of the most annoying tropes in wrestling.

The rematch isn't as good, but you get a lot more Oki vs. Baba, and Oki is definitely my kind of wrestler. Kim Duk isn't half bad either. I was under the impression that he wasn't very good. Not sure where I got that idea from.

Panther and Santo were neck and neck for my Lucha WOTY for 2001, but in the end I gave it to Panther. Casas' issues in 2000-02 are largely due to with how the company uses him. The biggest singles program he has in that time period is against Wagner and it doesn't air because of the Olympics. The only time he's relevant aside from that is whenever Santo shows up to reignite the feud with GdI. Meanwhile, Santo benefits from working dates in CMLL Japan, Monterrey and IWRG. As for as Lucha WOTY goes, I have it like this so far: 2000: Villano III (Runner up: Blue Panther) 2001 Blue Panther (Runner up: El Hijo del Santo) 2002: Shocker (Runner up: Ultimo Guerrero)

I really need some new Bret to sink my teeth into. I think I'll hit up that list.

The 10/76 match is awesome. Kind of surreal watching Jumbo and Baba go after Kim Duk's nose like that, and Jumbo was downright rude to Joe. Those kids mugging for the camera at the end were hilarious, especially when one of them falls on the commentator.

That's an interesting take. Is there a specific reason for that?

Baba/Oki is okay, but nowhere near as good as Inoki/Oki. I've made it pretty clear since the last poll that I think Baba is overrated and that Inoki is much better. I doubt many people will agree, though.