Ditch

"Dave goes on to say Inoki has a blood disease which makes his stamina awful" I can somewhat understand this given how Inoki looked in, say, 1987. But it's funny that the 8/8/88 return match was a really good 1 hour match with Fujinami, and Inoki seemed fine at the end.

I prefer continuing with '88.

Sure. Kyoko Kimura has been opposite men in deathmatches several times, and she has just enough size and spunk and toughness to make it work. Not everyone's cup of tea or anything, but somehow her trading light tube shots seems less bothersome than if someone booked Momoe Nakanishi to get kicked in the face for fifteen minutes by Kawada in 2001.

Am I wrong to hope that WWE goes the way of GM and is eventually done-in by unionized labor costs, allowing the Japanese to swoop in and take market share? Oh wait that would require efficiency from Japanese promotions.

How'd you wrangle Punker?

You forget the reality show money.

Here it is: http://pulsewrestling.com/2008/11/25/pulse...iew-book-notes/

I love this board.

Danielson has been in a league of his own over the last 36 months. Over the last 6 I'm not so sure, but then I haven't seen his biggest matches over the span (vs Nigel, vs Kanemaru, vs KENTA). Danielson vs Black from early in the year is much more unique than Nigel vs Black, which is now starting to blend in with other Nigel matches. Danielson vs Nigel from February was super-smart. I'll take Danielson vs Stevens over any of the Stevens vs Strong series that ROH keeps hyping. I'm not as keen on Battlarts as some, so I'm not on the Ishikawa-is-#1 bandwagon, but he's at least well up there in Japan because nobody is consistently good (besides Kobashi, who was hardly perfect before he went out). There's a contingent of love for guys like Tanahashi and Shingo, but I'm not feeling that at all. Sawa tries but the shining wizard thing irks me, it's so out of place and it's his big impact move. I don't keep up with WWE anymore so maybe it really is Matt Hardy.

I didn't see that last one the first time around. TomK is a friggin' saint for his efforts in those.

Finally wrapped things up today. The biggest thing I'm taking away is that the WWE/Morishima thing isn't dead the way it was reported. Not a heck of a lot of details on anything, but he answered most questions. High praise for Yoshimura, who Harley wrestled a lot in his JWA run.

Huh?

My last question to Harley was a general "what other Japanese guys besides Baba and Jumbo stood out" deal, and he got about three sentences out when the phone rang. He said "Yoshimura" was the best wrestler at the time he first went to Japan ('67?), and and I figured that he maybe got a name mixed up because I ain't heard of no Yoshimura. But I did a search today... http://www.puroresu.com/personalities/yoshimura_michiaki/ Anyone know more than what's there? Any footage?

Just got done with round 1 with Harley. He had to break it off early because Ted DiBiase called to invite him to a triple wedding; all of Ted's sons are getting hitched at once. A little more guarded than Scott Norton but still answered most things. The rest will have to wait for a Monday, which he says are his best days. At first he'd answer the phone and I couldn't understand what he was saying, it sounded like "Whirly". But now I realize he's saying "World League", as in WLW. Makes sense that his wife gave me that number, not their home phone.

Found this writeup of the RF shoot, which adds a bunch on top of the book: http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?showtopic=47938 It's going to be tricky because I want to include book and shoot notes as background, but I'm not sure if I should post them along with the interview or before. Good problem to have though.

On what piledriver? Was there a legit injury or something?

Mostly done with the book. I'll echo the "good but flawed" sentiment (Vader in MMA in 2004?!), and not that Harley Race is the toughest man alive just for walking around. Major car wrecks, shot, stabbed, massive infection from an intestinal rupture such that his insides were a wreck for years, etc. Almost none of the big stuff happened inside the ropes. Also his bad back caused him to cut short the use of steroids during his WWF run, and thus his bad back might have saved his life. Also you do not fuck with Harley Race. Ever.

Norton interview is up at pulsewrestling.com (and I put it in my DVDVR sig). Funny you bring up the 1990 thing because someone from pulsewrestling also brought it up this morning.

I did not know there was a book. Was it good? edit: Good or not I bought it. It's one thing to interview Scott Norton based on my scattershot knowledge, but Race is another thing altogether. Plus I very much doubt it sucks.

I just spoke with him, and he agreed to talk next week. So, since there's time, I'd like a little more background on: -Harley Race barbecue stories - Jackie Gleason

Great stuff so far!

I'm leery of asking a lot about "calling the match" questions, that sort of thing. I'll try though. Baba, Jumbo, Flair, plenty of big names to ask about working with.

Mrs. Race was kind enough to give me their phone number for the purposes of an interview, and I'm not familiar enough with Harley to ask enough questions to fill more than a couple minutes. So if you have anything you'd like to know, post it!

This sure didn't last long.

There were lulls, no denying. Just that today's ills are worse.