Curt McGirt

i think this nails it right on the head. Without Deano bridging the gap, WCW's burgeoning cruiserweight division would've been DOA. Perhaps this is why WWE was never successful with their own division. you had "real wrestling" and then you had "flippy wrestling". Dean wrested the "real" style in the "flippy" world, which made it work. I always thought the big problem with the WWE's cruiser division was that, much like their women's division and at various times the tag division, nobody existed within the division except a champion and a top contender. Taka vs. Brian Christopher....then the next month BC stops being on tv and it's Taka vs. Scott Taylor...then the next month Scott Taylor joins Christopher in the "where are they now" file and someone else shows up to fight Taka. The division failed because there was no division. In WCW you had a whole group of guys fighting and having matches away from the belt. It made it seem like the belt was something worth fighting for and not just a merry-go-round of random challengers. You hit the nail on the head here. Even as a kid, it felt like there was Taka and then nobody. Kaientai had a fun little run but that was vs. heavyweights as well. They just never got behind the division enough to make it matter like WCW did (or just let them because they weren't paying attention and the wrestlers were getting over without permission).

Yeah, it was a solid match but it's one of those things where you just don't want to see obvious best friends wrestle. I think Funk said the same thing in his book about his match with Dory. With the Malenko Bros. match, it was just two technicians going face to face and there wasn't some angle made up to try and sell the match.

After looking up ABSCAM I'm shocked that nobody did a movie about it until now. The only time I had heard about it prior was in Donnie Brasco. I don't want to hex the film, but this looks like it could be the next Goodfellas or Casino.

They never did have a singles match together, did they? In their prime that would have been glorious. As it was they totally brought the hate in the tags they were in.

What did he think about the helmet when they gave it to him? I can see him thinking "what is this shit". Did anyone ever try and shoot on him in Japan? What was it like meeting Lou Thesz, and whatever happened to the belt he gave him in UWF? Favorite worker in UWF?

Let's not forget about his work in All Japan with his brother. They even had a match against each other which ruled, and you would think that might end up an Arn vs. Flair level disaster.

Apparently a girl in the crowd gave Ig a mockup of the cheetah jacket and he wore it for a song onstage recently. The original was given to Stan Lee from the Dickies for drugs, of course.

Yeah, that is really what his hand looks like. On a side note I found out that there is a Mexican hardcore punk band called Mocho Cota and I really have to find out what they sound like.

Dutch totally looks like Mocho Cota. (sorry if that's too big)

Jim looks like he's gonna go jump off a bridge. And jesus is Shane big.

I love that just when you think this thread can't get any better, someone will post a picture of Finlay on a horse holding a rifle. EDIT: And wearing a track suit!

This was hurt a bit by me not being able to distinguish between the tecnico team members, but it was still awesome. Infernales Mark II rule. Fiera (I guess) attempts suicide in Hector Garza fashion off the top rope. The ending sequence almost falls apart but they save it at the last moment. "Una lucha apocalyptico" indeed, this was wild.

I will give in and watch mine tonight after work. Liquor and lucha will hopefully numb the sting.

Seeing this after a match taken off of Youtube, probably filmed by Japanese guys yet having local play-by-play, is completely surreal. It's like changing prescriptions on your glasses, all of the sudden you have incredibly vivid clarity. Atlantis still seems kinda green here with his overselling. El Dandy is Faraon's second and looks incredibly skinny. This one has very little flow and is pretty underwhelming. A couple good dives and Atlantis wins with a very 'after the thought' feeling rollup. I can see these two having a better match a couple years down the road (and involving some blood), but this ain't it.

Climax's white shirt, jeans and braces totally fit the Cock Sparrer tunes on the menu. First fall has the speed increasing exponentially until rudo miscommunication ends it. Cota powdering with his hands behind his back afterwards is tremendous. He stooges so good in this. Pretty ephemeral tag, but Mocho Cota brings the greatness.

If it wasn't for the clipping in the third fall this would probably be the match of the set, at least so far. This has a gritty, sleazy vibe that makes you think of Mean Streets or Last House on the Left. It's well-filmed but the shitty quality of the video makes it feel so trashy. Sangre is pouring blood within minutes of the first fall. Eventually he comes up with the simple comeback we already saw in the two MS-1 matches. This time however his tope is out of this world and I had to replay it. Villano III pops a vein out of nowhere and we have less than a full match. Sad, sad, sad.

Mocho Cota immediately gets another mark in my cool book by his hair making me say "you got to be shitting me". Rudos dominate early but the tecnicos come back and there's a funny little bit with Rayo dancing and faking out Benetto. They win the fall and Cota wants nothing to do with Villano and Gran Cochise who scare him out of the ring. He's truly great here, cheap-shotting people, bumping huge into the ring post, ducking down to apron level and racing around the ring to attack the other team on the sly. Fishman hits a huge splash to end segunda caida. Cota talks shit to an old lady at ringside just to amplify his rudo grandeur. He's so great that you totally accept Cochise biting his head open as a face move. This appears to set up a Cota/Cochise hair match that I greatly regret is not on the set. Cota shows so much ass in this and you want to see him served up on a platter.

I really lost it over the Conquistadors match. Workrate lucha in WWE with Mascarita Dorada in a bull costume. This is gonna be over like rover. Main event was awesome too, Dustin's makeup is so much better with black as the base.

I hope that was some personal shit on her part because it was a pretty brutal and careless diss. Despite that, it's fucking hilarious. Someone should e-mail that to Clive, I think he'd get a kick out of it.

It's definitely a new thing. Back in the day BJW's secondary focus was on juniors wrestling -- Tajiri is their claim to fame in that respect.

I just saw Wiseau on Tim and Eric the other night, I wonder how THAT partnership went.

Pretty random, back-and-forth beginning until the awesome spinning neck submission thing that Javier busts out, that really looks like something that would jack somebody up bad even though it is completely absurd. Cesaro could totally steal that today and it'd get over. We get the dawn of CMLL filming style as taco feasting is more interesting to the cameramen than the action (this would evolve to them paying more attention to cute girls in the crowd, luckily). Dandy beats up on Javier all caida until the half-Gory sub with hair pull. Tercera caida begins to wear on me, they just trade pins and submissions despite a brief bit of good brawling. The finish is unique and deserved as this could have been so much more than it was, so fuck it -- cueball both of 'em! El barbero does a serious Full Metal Jacket job on Javi before the tecnicos force Dandy back into the ring to face the same. He must have had a job either in the prison system or the military because dude surprises me with his speed and efficiency at cutting hair. I guess that says a lot about this match, as I'm more impressed by that than the work involved. Again, a hair match without blood. Sensing a pattern here.

wrong gang sign Konnan Meanwhile, Nash is too drunk to remember his own gang sign

I like Mick up on a pole being the least plausible thing on a comic book cover.

Cliffhanger's on Sundance right now. I am one very happy camper.