ohtani's jacket

Tony Salazar, Mogur y Alfonso Dantes vs. Hombre Bala, Talisman y Tony Bennetto vs. Satanico, MS-1 y Masakre (4/10/87) This was a one night only Cuadrangular de Tercias tournament. The teams were: Tony Salazar/Mogur/Alfonso Dantes Hombre Bala/Talisman/Tony Bennetto Satanico/MS1/Masakre (Los Infernales) Javier Llanes/Atlantis/Cachorro Mendoza The first two matches are single fall semi-finals. The final is 2/3 falls. The only new wrestler here is Mogur, who we'll get to in more detail with the Anniversary Show match. He had some heat here with Talisman, who he'd vanquished for the National Middleweight title, and Satanico, who was trying to take it off him. There was also long standing heat between Satanico and Dantes with the pair of them having been in a hair match in '85.

Atlantis, El Hijo del Santo y Tony Salazar vs. El Satanico, El Dandy y Espectro Jr. (4/3/87) The only real significance to this match was that it was another of Santo's Arena Mexico appearances. EMLL brought him in again in June where he worked a similar match w/ Lizmark subbing for Tony Salazar. Then they used him on the Anniversary Show where he tagged with Eddy Guerrero against Dandy and El Hijo Del Gladiador (aka Talisman.) But the real stuff took place in the independents where Santo had another bumper year taking a pair of masks and half a dozen scalps. The list of names he faced is salivating, such was the strength of the lightweight division even after the Misioneros and other trios had broken up. In the span of a few months, he took on Black Terry, Ray Richard, Lobo Rubio, Negro Cass and Espanto Jr. His long reign as UWA World Lightweight champion came to an end, however, when he fell to Espanto Jr. in Coahuila. Eventually, he would win back the title on the big stage at El Toreo and hold on to it until 1991 when he elected to no longer wrestle as a lightweight. He also took the mask of a very young Silver King, who was dejected afterwards:

El Satanico, MS-1 y Masakre vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr., La Fiera y Tony Salazar (3/20/87) Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Atlantis y Alfonso Dantes vs. MS-1, El Satanico y El Dandy (3/27/87) These were a pair of matches centered around MS-1's title shot against Rayo on 3/20 (making the first date almost assuredly wrong.) Rayo had defeated MS-1 almost two years earlier to claim the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, and if Fuentes needed any additional reason to hate Rayo then don't forget it was Jalisco who unmasked him in '82. These matches either book-ended the title shot or occurred before the match. Rayo had managed to fend off the challenge of Los Hermanos Dinamita throughout his title reign, but his luck ran out against the Infernales. MS-1 dethroned Rayo in the title match, ending Jalisco's 21 month run as NWA champ and capping off a tremendous start to the '87 season where he also took El Egipcio's hair and won the National Tag Team Titles with Masakre. In fact, the only thing that really alluded MS-1 in the first part of '87 was the National Trios Titles. Tony Salazar had one last major run in '87 before being repackaged as Ulises. On the 54th Anniversary Show, he was booked in an apuestas match against Pirata Morgan. Not quite his last hurrah, but certainly the end of an era in his career.

Lizmark, La Fiera y Kung Fu vs. Pirata Morgan, Hombre Bala y Jerry Estrada (2/27/87) Another Bucaneros trios. Fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. I don't believe any of the participants were feuding with each other. It was your standard sort of Arena Coliseo trios. Kung Fu was enjoying a run as the World Middleweight champion. He took the title from Gran Cochisse the previous October and would feud with El Dandy later in the year. Americo Rocca, Javier Cruz y Chamaco Valaguez vs. Talisman, El Dandy y Guerrero Negro (3/13/87) Los Xavieres vs. Los Bravos. I have a 3/6 date for this match-up, but it's possible that there was a return match as it was part of the build to a Guerrero Negro/Chamaco Valaguez hair match. The great thing about this match-up is that not only were Valaguez and Negro feuding, but they were also tagging with fierce rivals in Dandy & Cruz and Rocca & Talisman. Dandy and Cruz had been involved in a bloodbath in August of '86 and Rocca and Talisman would have yet another hair match in the Distrito Federal in '87. Los Xavieres, who alternated between Javier Llanes and Javier Cruz as their third member, spent the latter half of '87 feuding with the original Los Destructores (Tony Arce, Vulcano and Emilio Charles, Jr.) The feud and immediate aftermath was built around a triple hair match on 7/31 and would extend to a series of individual apuestas matches the following year (Emilio vs. Cruz, Cruz vs. Arce, and Llanes vs. Arce.)

Jerry Estrada, Pirata Morgan y Hombre Bala vs. Atlantis, Alfonso Dantes y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (Feb 1987) I believe the date on this match is 2/13/87. This marks the first appearance on the set of Los Bucaneros, the trio that was formed in the wake of Morgan's falling out with Satanico. Joining Morgan were Jerry Estrada, the young rudo whom Herodes brought in from Monclova and who was able to foot in Mexico City, and Morgan's older brother Hombre Bala. Bala was nine years older than his brother and had been wrestling for nearly a decade when Morgan made his debut. He was never a big star like his brother, but enjoyed a 40 year career where he managed to successfully wrestle under several different aliases. He began his career as 'Chamaco Ortiz' and drew comparisons to Raul Mata as a chubby worker who was extremely fast and spectacular, as well as effective. As a young man he was involved in a number of apuestas matches, mostly notably against the popular midcard worker Dr. O'Borman Sr and was a noted bleeder. Hombre Bala was his second pirate gimmick having previously worked as Rey Pirata. He adopted the Bala gimmick some time in the early 80s and worked under a mask for a good five or six years. He lost the mask to Atlantis on the 12/5/86 Arena Mexico show, which was one of Atlantis' big apuestas triumphs along with Talisman's mask at the 1984 Anniversary Show. After his unmasking, it was acknowledged that he was the older brother of Pirata Morgan and the two joined forces in his struggles against the Infernales. Estrada would eventually leave the Bucaneros and be replaced by another Morgan brother, Verdugo, but the original incarnation enjoyed a barnstorming 1987. On 8/30/87, they took the Mexican National Trios Championship from the team of Kiss, Ringo Mendoza and Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and ruled the roost for the final part of the 1987 season. Bala also had an extremely bloody hair match with El Dandy in August of '87, which I'm sure we all wish we could see. After Morgan's run with the Bucaneros was over, and he re-united with the Infernales, Bala shifted gimmicks to Cromagnon in the fun undercard trio 'Los Cavernicolas' (w/ Popitekus and Verdugo) and then enjoyed a successful late career run under the AAA gimmick of Monsther, forming a comedy duo with a mini version of Chucky from the Child's Play movies. Bala injured his knee training young wrestlers and was forced to retire in 2010. He had a benefit show in September that year in an effort to pay for his surgery. His son currently wrestles in the CMLL midcard as Hombre Bala Jr. Alfonso Dantes, Atlantis and Rayo were regular trios partners either with each other or in combination with other technicos. It was Dantes and Rayo who were Atlantis' partners in the trios matches that built to the Atlantis vs. Bala mask match, and Atlantis had also partnered Dantes and Rayo in their feud against Cien Caras and Mascara Ano 2000. Dantes was the reigning Mexican National Heavyweight Champion at this time having defeated Caras for the title on 8/20/86 and had successfully defended the crown against Herodes a few days prior. He would lose the title to Super Halcon in September, aka Danny Ortiz, aka El Halcon/Halcon Ortiz. That wasn't the end of Dantes though, as he took the title again in '88 from Gran Markus Jr. despite the fact he was inching towards retirement. Atlantis had a quiet '87 as his push cooled off, and Rayo dropped the NWA World Light Heavyweight Title to MS-1 a month after this trios and also had a quiet year, losing all of his titles and dropping down the card slightly in favour of other workers. Both workers would enjoy renewed pushes as the television era approached.

Jordan for Lebron.

I hope the NBA moves on from Jordan some day. His legacy casts too big a shadow over the league. I doubt Jordan would have beaten the Spurs with this Heat team. He may have made things more competitive and he would've eaten his teammates alive, but do the Heat suddenly start playing amazing team defense because they're terrified of Mike?

Okay, fair enough, though the Lakers did re-tool and beat the Spurs again in 2008. The point I was trying to make was that the 2001 sweep was brutal and then Kobe closed the Alamo in 2002, but Duncan and the Spurs escaped the type of scrutiny that most superstars face. Can you imagine what it would be like for Lebron if one of his teams was swept or lost in the first round? Granted, the Spurs had already won a championship (at the Lakers' expense), but the only real criticism the Spurs ever got was that they were boring and more recently that they're old.

Hahaha. Thank you for saying this. Anybody who's ever listened to Rick Barry talk for more than 5 minutes knows that he has an amazingly outsized opinion of himself. I love it on old NBA footage when the Warriors get knocked out and Barry steps into the CBS booth. He was a great commentator. Brilliant at reading the play.

By the same token, the Lakers had the Spurs number for a long time and Duncan has had his share of failures in the playoffs. I don't think Duncan was ever held to the same standards or expectations as Shaq, Kobe or Lebron simply because the media has never been as interested in the Spurs as they are the Lakers or Lebron.

Hope it was the same thing he said to Wilt in '67: "Great, baby. Great."

Congratulations to the Spurs! Only the 4th or 5th team to lose in 7 and come back and win it all the following year, and some of the best finals basketball since the Showtime Lakers.

It reminds me of the '89 Pistons sweeping the Lakers after the Lakers had beat them in 7 in '88. Obviously, the Spurs are more like the Lakers in terms of age, but I can't remember the last time I saw a team lose in the finals then come back this strongly.

Leonard for finals MVP?

If Lebron drops 40, will this be forever known as "the Poo game"?

Hey, look on the bright side. At least they have three days to fix the A/C.

Ha, if none of the stadiums had air conditioning, Lebron would have never won a ring.

If this were the 90s, we'd be talking about how flawed these teams are and how they're incapable of winning the title (the '94-95 Rockets aside.) They seem better in hindsight than they really were. None of them were as consistently good as the Spurs, who Lebron is now facing for a third time.

The West was softer than the East when Magic went to all those finals and you don't hear that as a talking point much. I'm not sure the Western conference teams Jordan faced were as good as today's Western teams, either.

The home team won every game in that series, but only the games in Boston were blowouts.

Ballot sent. That was the first time in one of these polls that I could have sent a list with 100 legitimately great films. I managed to sneak in some personal faves, but it's crazy when you get into the 80s and you're still ranking famous films.

Here's the last batch of films I watched for this: I BURY THE LIVING (Albert Band) -- great title, not so great film. The mystery takes forever to kick in and the pay-off is lame. The acting is pretty shoddy too. The saving grace is the photography, but not one of the decade's stronger B-films. THE BAND WAGON (Vincente Minnelli) -- the musical for people who like to claim that Singing in the Rain isn't the best musical of the decade. Is it better than Singing in the Rain? No. In fact, I'm not convinced it was better than An American in Paris, but Fred Astaire devotees may disagree. THE BURGLAR (Paul Wendkos) -- pretty good under the radar noir. Has a bit of a problem with exposition, but the elements you want from a noir are there and the final set piece on the pier at Atlantic City is cool, even if the idea of a showdown at an amusement park was far from original. ICE COLD IN ALEX (J. Lee Thompson) -- quintessential British war film. Just a ripping good yarn. The bulk of the action deals with a group of soldiers escorting two nurses across the desert in an ambulance and is similar to Wages of Fear in terms of the dangers they face. Fantastically shot set piece scenes. Great acting. Plenty of tension and drama. This one had it all. Great note to end on.

SUDDEN RAIN (Mikio Naruse) -- chose a random Naruse to watch since there's so much of his filmography I haven't see. It was all right, but the impression I get with Naruse is that he was inconsistent, particularly with the material he chose to shoot. Yet in some quarters they rave about each of his films because they were previously unknown and not canon. I'm not sure he deserves the plaudits. At least not on a film by film basis. This was also a film about a married couple bickering, and if you're married you'll know that's not always what you want to watch. WHEN CHIMNEYS ARE SEEN (Heinosuke Gosho) -- this was the first Gosho film I've seen, and despite it being the umpteenth million post-war Japanese drama about hardship and people living on the fringes, Gosho's love of Rene Clair meant this had a wonderful comic charm to it. Like most comedies it ran out of steam, but it was a good introduction to Gosho and I'd recommend it for people who like Shohei Imamura's films. O DRAKOS (Nikos Koundouros) -- considered by Greek critics to be the greatest Greek film ever made, this is a noirish character study about a sad and lonely officer worker who is mistaken for a notorious criminal. Since he hates his life, you can pretty much guess what follows. It was quite frenetic to begin with and I had some trouble with what was going on, but the photography won me over and the end shot in particular was really gorgeous. The story itself wasn't the most original, but I was into it by the final third. Not bad. THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (Frank Tashlin) -- Frank Tashlin films are always colourful and fun. This wasn't a masterpiece like Rock Hunter, but it was enjoyable. It was Tashlin's ode to rock 'n' roll and features a lot of the biggest names of the day like Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Fats Domino. ROOM AT THE TOP (Jack Clayton) -- I enjoyed this kitchen sink drama. The lead character was a bit of a prick, but Laurence Harvey was a good enough actor that I didn't despise him. His motivations were clear; the only real problem was that it wasn't convincing when he was supposed to be in love (with Simone Signoret.) That was the only real chink in the film's armour, though I wouldn't call Signoret's Oscar winning performance exceptional. THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (Roberto Rossellini) -- this is canon, but it's not the most exciting film is it? I liked a couple of the stories towards the end, especially the one about the siege, but I generally don't care for films that are chamber pieces or rather a collection of short stories. I get what Rossellini was trying to illustrate about the Christian spirit, but there wasn't much to hang your habit on. SURCOS (Jose Antonio Nieves) -- now this was an excellent neo-realism film. There were as many neo-realism films in the 50s as there were films about post-war Japanese society, but this sticks out as one of the better ones and certainly one of the best Spanish films of the decade. It's a familiar story of a family of farmers who move from their village to the big city in pursuit of a better life and full victim to the evils of the city, but it was extremely well made and managed to slip past the censors in the Franco regime. I would consider this the Spanish version of the Bicycle Thief or something similar. LA TRAVERSEE DE PARIS (Claude Autant-Lara) -- classic French comedy starring Jean Gabin and Bourvil. As usual with foreign comedy much is lost in translation, but the plot was amusing even if the jokes didn't make me laugh out loud, and I was impressed that the film didn't run out of steam. I probably won't vote for it, but I enjoyed it. EDES ANNA (Zoltan Fabri) -- Sweet Anna was very sweet. Even my three year-old daughter said she was cute. She's the maid of a woman who treats her like shit in this Hungarian drama about a sweet girl pushed to the edge. A very good, economical film that as probably an analogy for some political thing I can't be bothered looking up. Since there's only a hundred spots on the list, this is the kind of film that's right on the cusp, but it was very good. Fabri is another guy where I'd like to see more of his stuff.

Edit: Wrong thread.

For my money, the 50s is the best decade in the history of cinema. I could go 200 deep easily and keep watching films for the rest of the year, so I'm happy to stop. There's plenty of stuff I haven't seen yet and a handful of films I wish I'd re-watched, but I was able to knock off a massive amount of stuff and branch out in several new directions, so I've thoroughly enjoyed this project. Sadly, I don't see this continuing into the 40s and earlier, but it was a great excuse to have a singular focus in what I watched.