Matt D

I just can never get enough of these guys:

2/28/87: Masakatsu Funaki/Akira Nogami vs Tatsuo Nakano/Yoji Anjo: I have real limitations while on the treadmill. I'm watching Monterrey lucha that Roy posted for SC every other Friday right now and I can pop onto luchawiki while watching it and try to figure out who, let's say Huracan, Jr was (he was Huracan Ramirez' nephew who had a run in UWA in the early 90s but then disappeared). I'm not super familiar with the young version of these guys though and this is a HH that's clipped exactly in the right way that we miss the ring introductions. We've got a kickpad guy teaming with a long boot guy and I assume those are Funaki and Nogami. Then we have shitty little boots guys who I assume are Nakano and Anjo. But maybe I have it backwards. These are all guys who end up with really distinctive looks moving forward, but not yet and the VQ is what it is and I'm watching on my phone. Let me speak in generalities. If this was an AJPW young boys match, they'd work holds and up into spots and back into holds, right? These guys just grapple like madmen the whole time, interspersed with some double team stompings and beatings and the occasional suplex from team kickpad. Everyone was just game enough that it was fun to watch. I don't know if it was twenty minutes fun to watch. It might have been more fun to watch if I had more familiarity but I'll get that in time. 3/2/87: Inoki/Fujinami vs Williams/Steiner: This was fun. Doc remains larger in life in a way that he both would and woudln't be a few years later. He had figured out his act more by 90. In 87, there's still this raw air of unpredictability. He could do anything at any moment. He and Steiner (wearing Zubaz type gear) ambush our heroes to start with Doc going so far as to press slam Inoki right off the bat. Throughout the match, they're able to assert themselves with teamwork, strength, and interference, but Inoki and Fujinami are explosive with dropkicks (and kick kicks and back brain kicks) and are always able to come back. At one point, Fujinami makes a diving RnR style tag to Inoki which is cool and something you so rarely see in Japan. My favorite part here was Doc getting froggy and dropping down to a wrestling position, giving Inoki a grappling attempt. Inoki actually got him around into the cobra before Steiner came in to interfere. Great stuff. Finish was busy, with a ref bump and Inoki moving out of the way so that Doc crashed into Steiner. Fun, larger than life stuff. Steiner was definitely lesser but still felt like he belonged by Doc's side.

Apparently Andrade did work Pirata Morgan once in 2015 in New Mexico.

That's on Swerve. Him winning the TNT belt in early 2024 and getting to brag for the next few months that he beat one of the top stars of the 21st century to do it is exactly the sort of thing he could use to help come off like a star himself. He takes the belt to media appearances and can brag about having beaten The Guy Who Used to be Edge for it and they'll know who he's talking about.

I think he’s just about as good a wrestler as Edge?

The only positive "Copeland Wins" outcome I can think of is if it sets up Swerve beating him at Revolution.

Gringo Loco's Spanish Fly Stroke was the move of the year but no one will ever see it. My big problem with Loco is that he hits stuff that should end the match but never does. He never wins but whatever he hits before losing is always more impactful and insane than whatever he loses to. There was a Dralistico vs Serpentico exchange I hated. Sorry, Serp.

It doesn’t really go off the rails until Fall of X.

The Portrait of Jun Kasai

You're in for next week. The whole Person > Person > Person thing gets confusing. Anyway @porksweats gave me Orange Cassidy vs Effy. This was from July 2019 and at GCW. From what I gather, Effy was just on the rise in GCW (This was his fifth show and his first singles match). He's a guy who I understand the idea of but I haven't actually seen much in practice. I bet he actually came out of this with some thoughts on how to tweak the act or lean harder and more consistently into it. Cassidy was a few months away from really starting in AEW and he had his own act mostly worked out. It's one of the minor miracles of this decade in wrestling so far that he figured out how to take the act and lean it into a more traditional babyface framework. Wrestling is ultimately symbolic and moves (or to take it a step further, actions) are symbols. You can substitute one thing in for another so long as it has the same narrative value. You just have to control the response accordingly. He was farther along here in figuring it out than even some 2019 matches I've seen out of him. There was more of a sense that it was a mind game as opposed to him just being this weird entity that broke wrestling. In that regard, Effy was even further along that line in some ways, but not nearly as committed from a kayfabe perspective; he broke more because Cassidy was just unyielding. You could hurt him but you couldn't otherwise break him. If he was in a position to have autonomy, he was going to fire up only to give you the weak chop or walk around you just to give you the weak kick. Really, what it took for Effy to ultimately win was to steal the mist, which is one of those spots that you could imagine Adrian Street overcoming Kabuki with in 1984 but otherwise seems sort of hard to imagine at any other point in wrestling history. Even then, Cassidy was able to get the better of Effy again until Effy just managed to show a tiny bit more effort in a key moment, maybe breaking some unwritten accord. This was on the high end of what Indy Orange Cassidy could do and could be but it really highlights how he upped the act in making it more mainstream and streamlined. It's important to reiterate just how unlikely, almost impossible even, it was that he managed to pull it off though without losing anything but cynicism he didn't need in the first place thereby still managing to retain so much of what made it entertaining and special in the first place, all the while jettisoning those bits that would make it disrupt reality on an overall card

Ok, I am not at all 100% but I was good enough to try to run last night. Part of it, to be brutally honest, is that after being my highest weight in around two years, being horrifically sick on the cruise got me back down to closer to where I have been and I want to make some positive out of it and capitalize. No shame. 2/28/87: Fujinami/Mutoh/Takano vs Maeda/Fujiwara/Kido: This wasn't entirely a massacre, but it was kind of close. It's HH. The deal is that Inoki, Fujinami, Koshinaka, Sakaguchi, Kimura all had 1986 to learn how to at least partially hang with the UWF guys and Mutoh and Takano just aren't there yet. They're good enough now to maybe clubber their way on top a bit or to catch a kick (Takanao) or to get one good takedown or reversal (Mutoh) but then they just get swallowed up whole. With Fujiwara, it's a takedown. With Kido, it's a reversal. With Maeda, it's a throw or a kick. Fujinami can hang but that just makes them use their best stuff (like Fujiwara with the head bridge flip out of a crab attempt). So the NJPW guys could get back into it but never hold or press an advantage. Good finishing stretch with Fujinami hitting the ropes like only he (and maybe Bret Hart) can but eating a Maeda spin kick, which brought Mutoh in to get Dragon Suplexed. There still is a big feeling of excitement whenever it's Maeda vs Fujinami.

It sucks to travel to Canada and they got a great deal on the building?

My attempt to put words to Kingston vs Danielson. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/12/aew-five-fingers-of-death-1127-123.html?m=1

I think Garcia somehow takes King to the limit.

That's actually how I hope they deal with Danielson later on, where he wants to retire but he's either chasing the belt before he does or he has it and refuses to let go and it's like the siren song as part of his odyssey.

Some great moments (including the hide behind the couch bits and general character development stuff) in Wild Blue Yonder though there were the usual Davies plot holes that you could drive a truck through that hurts the suspension of disbelief. He was always worse at getting the sci fi stuff ironclad (or even vaguely tight) even if he had the general shape of things solid. Emotional resonance makes for flimsy glue.

There barely are any pre-84 WWF TV matches that are gems like this. I gave Gordi the Battle of Atlantic City three years ago from weirdo local WWWF TV and it's great but kind of too long. This is a cheat since it's a Philly house show match but I don't think I've given it to anyone and the heat is off the charts. I did post it when Sheik died and wrote about it on SC though: And if these weren't what you were thinking, I'm going to break your rule and just give you Tito vs Windham from 89 or something (Or the late 90s Texas vs Memphis WWF match maybe?) I got nothing right now. We got too many sick kids and adults for me to think through what I'd like. Pick a match that you like a ton (or hate!) and want to see me write about. That's good enough for me.

Week 1! @The Natural @Casey ------- @porksweats Matt D ------ @Curt McGirt @Gordi the former AEW fan ------- @Sammo~! > @brynn9292 > @Zimbra ( > Sammo~!) So Sammo gives a match to Brynn. Brynn gives a match to Zimbra. Zimbra gives a match to Sammo. Got it? Feel free to post what you'd want to see now. I'll take literally anything at this point. Anything you want, PS?

The pandemic taught us how much better it is to just see a movie at home with your food and your bathroom and the ability to pause and have subtitles, basically. The gains of the social environment and the big screen/sound just don't overweight the convenience. Especially if you have kids. Movies we've seen since: 1.) Encanto with the older girl. 2.) Elemental with both girls. 3.) We divided and conquered with the older girl: wife took her to Spider-Verse; I took her to Indiana Jones. And then we just saw Marvels and Wish on this cruise last Saturday. I could imagine wanting to see Furiosa on the big screen but virtually nothing else right now. The only reason I'd possibly want to otherwise is so I didn't get spoiled on something.

Probably 20% too violent/gory for the wife unfortunately. We’ll see.

Thanks everyone. If anyone else wants to get in for week 1, let us know. I'll roll the dice in the morning.

My guess is that we know more tonight but if I had to make the tough call on what to do with the ROH PPV and Eddie, I'd either just do Eddie vs Claudio's Continental Classic match on the ROH PPV or do a fight without honor with the two of them.

The 11 year old has been sick so she’s working her way through the Capaldi episodes. Heaven Sent remains a top 5 modern Who episode.

I'm almost there. Been under the weather since we got back from a family trip. Hopefully I'll be able to run again by Monday! Anyway, here's the match. You ever want anything, just say the word. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rONLlSW0ZxGc6ltO4i_z5dp7l_zaM3dq/view?usp=sharing

Canada's title.