Matt D

It's more about habits maybe. There are certain spots I don't think he needs to do or should be doing. He's best when he's presented as contrast.

I think in ring he’s very dependent on his opponent.

6/17/88: Owen vs Kobayashi: This started great with Owen doing his little backflip into the ring and Kobayashi just nailing him with a spin kick, and another, and a beating outside the ring. But unlike every other match that started that way in the last six months, Owen just came back too soon and it became dumb 50-50 stuff. Good news is that Kobayashi snuck out a banana peel win and won the belt, thus defending Japan's honor against crummy spotty Canadians, which is what Owen was in 88. 6/19/88: Vader/Saito vs NORTH-SOUTH CONNECTION (Adonis/Murdoch): I had no idea this match happened. Adonis and Murdoch reunited. Adonis looked pretty damn good actually. He'd lost weight from even his AWA run and he was moving great in there. He matched up really well with Vader. Just big meaty stuff. And then Saito stooged all over the place for their punches like you'd imagine too. This was a lot of fun but eventually Saito isolated Murdoch long enough for Vader to do the tree of woe rush (which never really looks great relative to his other stuff) to Adonis and then the running powerslam. 6/19/88: Kimura/Fujinami vs Gaspars: I think this was the match where Kimura and Fujinami came out with their cool letter jackets from a year or two before. Might have been the last match. Not a lot to this really. Fujinami and Kimura dominated early. We're talking an early Robinson backbreaker/Dragon sleeper, but did eventually fall to the numbers came. They came back big but Kimura got tripped by Wakamatsu and got double teamed as this got thrown out until Fujinami was able to make the save. Just a general sense of stake raising as they approached the big Choshu match. 6/18/88: Choshu vs Fujiwara. Speaking of Choshu. This was one of the better 50-50 matches i've ever seen because each momentum shift escalated things a little bit more. Choshu got the first strike. Fujiwara came back with a headbutt. Choshu fired back by beating him up in the corner. Fujiwara got a hold in. Choshu escalated to the Scorpion. Fujiwara got the armbar. Choshu got a Lariat in, but Fujiwara was able to come back big from the outside. But Choshu was able to survive the headbutts and dodge his way to another Lariat for the win. Just heating him up for the big match but it was a very fun "sprint" of sorts. 6/11/88: UWF Starting Over II: Shigeo Miyato vs Tatsuo Nakano: I want to get through the June UWF card. This was Nakano, a tank, vs Miyato who was much smaller and had less reach and well everything but he had conditioning and was plucky. Storytelling with shootstyle is implicit and sometimes they go on a real journey through a match. Here, Nakano squashed him to start, just too big. Miyato was able to use speed to hit a flurry and get him down though. That was basically the only thing that kept him alive so he didn't get killed in the first ten minutes. As the match went on, his conditioning seemed to give him an advantage and he was able to target the leg, using these low kicks that were almost trips to get Nakano down multiple times. He almost got him on an nasty half crab but Nakano survived and when Miyato tried to go a bit more broadly, Nakano was able to get the advantage again. The back third of this had them going equal, full of exhaustion and big throws and standup striking. A lot of this seemed to be almost to get certain notions of the functional rules of the game over. Just what mattered from a narrative sense to people in the crowd maybe new to the style, the weight of everything. Miyato might hit three or four shots for every Nakano one but beacuse of the size difference that's what it took. you realized towards the end they were working towards the shoot style draw and they got there but I think I would have been happier with a 25 minute match where one of them won.

I will say that the call did a great job covering for it by noting that "Maybe Keith didn't even realize he was hurt." Also that I expanded out my thoughts into a more general sense, and I think the other stuff is far more interesting than me landing with Ospreay.

Haven't heard back yet but that's fine. This was a nice bit of sophistry and deserves a reward. So, here's something about modern wrestling for you. I much prefer wrestling to be organic and react to the moment, to watch matches that are called in the ring for the most part. The simple fact of the matter is that most matches today are not called in the ring. They're very carefully planned out. There are both opportunities and drawbacks to that, but there's also a different sort of expectation. I don't love Ric Flair matches from 87 where they spend the first twenty minutes working a body part and it never really matters later; doesn't even connect to the next segment of the match really. But I do understand why it happens and how it's part of working a specific style and calling things in the ring. It doesn't mean I give it a free pass comparatively though. It does mean that I expect narratives to be a little bit tighter when it comes to extraneous things in 2025 because i know they're working with an agent and plotting things out more. Yes, there'll be less of that spontaneity and feeling "alive" that you'd get in decades past, but you trade that for more complex counter sequences/narratives/finishing stretches. That makes dangling and extraneous bits stand out all the more though, because I have different expectations for modern matches along those lines.

Expand more on these values and what they are?

Punches have a set normative narrative value to them within the fictional world of pro wrestling. With established consequence and certain logical exceptions for certain scenarios (95 Duggan taping his fist, Big Show, Ronnie Garvin, the heart punch). Not real, narratively consistent and meaningful.

I just want things to make sense in a fictional narrative. You don’t write even a comic book or dime novel where you introduce elements for no reason

It’d be less of an issue if it was less of a pattern from him or if it was more common with everyone else. Everyone else gets one. He gets one every match. There was a bit in the Okada match which was particularly egregious. If he’s doing a Sabu deal where he’s botching narrative elements on purpose (instead of spots) just to screw with me (like Sabu did with fans), then I give him way more credit.

Why do something extra if it's not going to be meaningful. Just sell in general that you missed and then have Keith take over. Every action in a wrestling match has significance and purpose. I'm not saying you have to open and close every parenthesis in every match but the act of opening one is a conscious choice.

Ospreay's matches are always so peculiar to me. I've written at length about him, of course, and will write about this with some distance, BUT... why did he sell his knee on the outside if it wasn't going to be part of the match? Was it to excuse him being unready for Keith to run around ringside and attack him? Excalibur noted that Keith wasn't aware of it, but then it was never an issue for the rest of the match. Did an agent go over that with him? Did he and Keith talk it out? Did he think of doing it in the moment because of how he landed? His matches so often feel like word problems with extra clues tacked on to them. I don't mean that in a bubble either. I mean it relative to every other match on the card. He just has dangling ideas that never necessarily go anywhere when his matches would probably be better off if they were just simpler and more straightforward. Otherwise, I thought it went well because Keith is a great opponent for him; because he did such a good job getting booed early by not taking anything without a shortcut; and because he took all of Ospreay's stuff so well down the stretch. But that knee moment stuck out like a sore thumb and there are little bits that kill narrative immersion on so many of Ospreay's matches.

Leaving the circumstances of the death aside, Hackman is a guy who was out of sight out of mind. Lots of great movies and performances and the ability to turn a not great movie into something worth watching, but when someone's been out of the limelight/retired/not a public figure for so long, and when they die at an advanced age, it doesn't really hit me. Dick Van Dyke dying tomorrow would hit me way more because he's out performing with his band and living a pretty vibrant public life. In so much as I have any connection with a celebrity, I said bye to Hackman years ago.

I am posting about one gif per match on bluesky now so go check out what I've been posting. They don't all end up here. 06-17-88: Choshu/Saito vs Billy and Barry Gaspar: Ok, so I don't actually care who the Gaspars are right now. I think Big Skye is gone. Whenever I look at Meltzer again, I'll figure it out. The two important things to know going in are that they're saying this is a match Choshu has to get through to get to Fujinami and Wakamatsu is now with the Gaspars. Choshu and Saito come in with Chairs but the ref doesn't let them keep them. That leaves them open for the sword shots which is kind of bullshit but they fireback anyway. And really this is almost like a Choshu/Saito squash which is pretty cool in its own way (early on the pulled the corner guard down and controlled that way). Choshu finally hits the lariat and Saito the Saito suplex but he gets dragged out and absolutely opened up with the sword. We're talking blood ghoulish mess. He makes great faces standing tough and eventually, after Wakamatsu gets him, really firing back. He goes after Wakamatsu and things sort of break down they end up fighting Choshu 3 on 1 and he's at risk for the Fujinami match, but that's ok because... 6/17/88: Fujnami vs Murdoch: So if I could have done this, I would have had Fujinami run through Murdoch, Kimura, and Super Strong Machine, and maybe even Saito before doing the Choshu no contest, but they're doing it now. And this was very good. Murdoch had the advantage for a lot of it but Fujinami did keep coming back. Murdoch worked over the arm and then let loose with the elbows. They spilled to the floor and Murdoch did a bit where he did a time out and they both came back inside with Murdoch holding the ropes. He was more technical and less goofy here. Eventually he really took over because they went spilling over the top and Fujinami's bad leg to caught in the ropes in a really well executed spot. He hit his signature shoulder charge into the post after that. He finally hit calf branding and the brainbuster but Fujinami got his leg on the rope and he basically got a banana peel win shortly thereafter. But now his leg was at risk going into the Choshu match too.

Snuck in: UWF 2.0: 5/12/88: Yoji Anjo vs Tatsuo Nakano: I did not have a great sense of these two in NJPW. Now I do. Anjo was more precise, had beter technique, really targeted the right arm/shoulder as the match went on. Nakano was a truck. An absolute truck. We've seen a bit with Hashimoto in the margins but i can't think of a UWF 1.0 guy like this. The closest is Maeda and Nakano is different. He's just a freight train crashing into you with these meaty shots. Holy hell. Sometimes Anjo had an answer. There's takedown I love where he absorbed a couple of kicks to get close enough get a head and shoulder and just drive him down. At one point, he turned a German pin into a Fujiwara Arm Bar. That sort of thing. Just real smooth. And when he started to unload on the arm he did so meanly. He also goaded him in with a shot a one point too. Shoot style was so nascent at this point that some of these things seem so fresh for me. It meant Nakano just came charging at him. But he got some shots in because of it. Lots of at one points here but that's kind of the flow of these matches. Yes, there was the arm focus. Yes there was skill vs size. But it all builds to these moments. So at one point, Nakano just beasted him over into a rear naked in a way I've barely seen in shoot style up to 88. Match ended with a Nakano Full nelson into a really nasty triangle like choke where he just again, beasted it. I'm ready to see more of these two moving forward now.

I’d have Joe beat Christian for the contract at Revolution, have Mox beat Cope but Cope finally get the conchairto on him, and have Joe come out to end the show saying this cash in thing is bullshit and cowards but that he’d be seeing Mox at the main event of Dynasty.

I still think the issue is the pandemic. They paced these movies way too slowly. Thubderbolts and Young Avengers should have come out two years ago.

6/10/87: Kimura/Fujinami(c) vs Saito/Choshu: This was, I think, the make good for Choshu missing out on winning the tag titles earlier in the year and (I presume) him about to do the job for Fujinami. It was a good, long match, a lot of back and forth. Saito and Choshu took back over a couple of times with belly to back/saito suplexes. Kimura was a lot of fun with his strikes on Saito especially. You could tell that he was kind of trying to own that lane in a post Maeda/Takada world. Fujinami still looks kind of off with the haircut. He didn't necessarily come off as the super ace here like he did during the Choshu singles. He also didn't sell the leg much. It was Kimura that had to after he landed a toprope kneedrop right into an outstretched knee (good looking spot). After that they pretty much demolished his leg. Finish was Saito putting on the prison lock, Fujinami breaking it up, then Choshu lariating Fujinami and Saito doing it again. Nice image of Fujinami grabbing on to Kimura to try to get him not to tap but to no avail. Oh, Saito did a couple of dropkicks here which were solid B- for effort attempts. He should not do those. 6/10/87: Yamada vs OWen: They called Yamada the Starlight Express, I think? We come in JIP after the entrances. It's what you'd expect. I have very little time for these efforts after the epic and balanced Hase matches. Owen wins with the WM 10 finish.

Btw, I was looking to upload the Takada vs Hase match for someone and youtube wouldn't let me even unlisted, but it's part of this archive.org playlist. Lots of other fun stuff on there too. https://archive.org/details/1986.03.26-njpw-new-japan-vs-u.-w.-f.-5-vs-5-elimination-match/NJPW-The+History+of+New+Japan+vs+U.W.F/Upheaval!+IWGP+Title+Battle+Collection/1988.03.11a-NJPW-IWGP+Jr.+Heavyweight+Championship+Match-Hiroshi+Hase+(C-V1)+VS+Nobuhiko+Takada.mp4#

5/12/88 UWF: Takada vs Shigeo Miyato (exhibition): Miyato has experience, I guess but I've never seen much of him. He has the right training. But he really gets steamrolled here. Yakada had a few inches on him and a reach advantage and he made the most of it. At one point Miyato caught his foot but he pressed up on his hand and swept the leg out. Very cool. I think Takada took a couple of submissions here. This wasn't a lot all things considered. 5/27/88: Hase vs Owen: They do a bunch of stuff. Owen wipes out huge on a moonsault on to Hase's knees. Owen wins. NJPW Owen stinks. Best part about this was Adonis coming in to celebrate with him after the fact. 5/27/88: Fujinami(c) vs Choshu: This was a neat piece of business, let me tell you. This was Ace Fujinami getting back at Choshu for all the shit he did to him through the decade. This was his time, his era, his new start. Choshu tried to goad him early and he was having no part of it. Choshu kept trying for the belly to back out of a headlock early and Fujinami jammed him with the leg in the most Fujinami thing ever. He took over after a dropkick and worked the leg for a really great figure four. Neck straining goodness from Fujinami. Choshu pulling the ref over in pain and then using the mat for leverage to push the leg off. Great stuff. Then he pushed it even further, taking the pad off and slamming Choshu's head in and taking him outside (where he got color). Eventually Choshu did get a couple of belly to backs but Fujinami ducked the lariat! And as he was hitting the ropes you knew he was going to hit his own and this would be taken care of but the knee that Vader had destroyed in their match gave out. It was all downhill from there. Fujinami fought his way back into the ring after Choshu posted him and knocked him off the apron with a lariat. He fought out of the Scorpion. He managed to get the dragon sleeper on. He even managed a Robinson backbreaker which hurt his knee. But he just couldn't continue and it became an anticlimactic mess. I'm not 100% sure what happened in the title but it should have gone to Choshu but I think it gets vacated because Choshu refuses to win that way (though he sure liked to keep kicking Fujinami as they were checking on him). Pretty epic stuff in its own way.

The Int'l Title thing is pretty weird. Omega should at least have to defend his spot against Mark Davis or something.

5/8/88: Don Nakaya Nelson vs Yamada (Different Style Fight): This is probably the best of these ever, no? Yamada carries himself like a star. he really does. He kept going for takedowns as Nelson went for strikes. He'd get Nelson in holds but usually in the ropes. It's hard to see the strings on this one in a cool way. Occasionally, Nelson would get a good kick in and Yamada would go down. Yamada went for the koppu kick and that just seemed to confuse Nelson. At one point, he got a German and the place went nuts. Really, Yamada looked good. I think this was so good because Nelson was winning (He was supposed to face Takada here before he left, and this was to set up a bigger fight later, maybe?) so he was able to give a little more, but a lot of it was Yamada just being active and game. Late in the fight, Yamada went down and it seemed like a killing blow, especially after Nelson flew across the ring with another kick but he sort of overshot and Yamada got back into it. In the end though, he crushed Yamada's leg with a kick and Yamada went down and got up a couple of times only to go down again before Nelson hit again. Fun stuff for what it was. You don't want to watch these every day but once in a while can be neat. 5/8/88: Fujinami vs Vader II: So this was for the vacant IWGP title and it was pretty cool even if slight since we come in JIP and it's a non conclusive finish. Every duck and dropkick by Fujinami felt like a big deal and he DID seem elevated here. He hit an early German which was pretty crazy. Vader went way up for him. And he even got the dragon sleeper on. Vader survived it though. There was a cool moment when Fujinami went for the backbreaker out of a waistlock and hurt his leg and Vader really took over and there was a sense Fujinami was a dead man but he kind of shrugged it off and hit a dive (this could have been set up better with a little selling). Vader caught it, smashed him into the post and this time hit the vader attack into the post, then another to knock Fujinami off the apron. Fujinami went for a sunset flip however and Vader held the rope. Tigor Hattori (the ref) kicked the arm out and Vader press slammed him in fury and that was the match basically. Fujinami obviously was not happy with the win (he even smashed someone with the mic post match) but he had the belt. UWF 2.0! 5/12/88: Maeda vs Yamazaki: This was very good. Yamazaki had lightning fast kicks, beesting-like, but Maeda was a beast who could do as much damage with one kick as Yamazaki could with many. There was a bit early on where Yamazaki got two kicks in, one right on the skull but Maeda then hit the single underhook suplex and shut him down. He always had an answer. The story over time is that Maeda would dominate, Yamazaki would get an opening and press, but Maeda would take it and take back over. He was just too much, like always. Yamazaki's best run of luck was with a half crab that he went back to multiple times because Maeda couldn't do much while in it. Yamazaki had grown. Down he stretch, Maeda had Yamazaki on the ropes, but he came back dominating in the corner, then in the ropes, and there was a real sense that maybe he could get him, but Maeda finally blocked a kick and hit the most legit looking spin wheelkick ever and that was basically that. Pretty gripping stuff overall though. It's on youtube.

We took the kids to an indoor water park and I got laid out with norovirus for a couple of days. Back on my feet though. I am going to double back for the first UWF 2.0 show and I'll do those as I go, I think. I'm not going to be able to watch everything but this feels very associated. Let's see if I can remember the last few things I watched. 5/5/88: Fujinami vs Manny Fernandez: Pretty straightforward stuff. Manny is super credible and still a breath of fresh air. It's interesting they're not protecting him nearly as much as, let's say Orton (masked or not), because he is someone that's never going to get another major US run and does hang around a while I think, over multiple tours. Here though he loses clean to Fujinami's combination, which, I mean, good, it has to stay over and too many people in tags and elsewhere haven't lost to it, but still. They're building to the Vader rematch with him frustrated that Fujinami got the countout win on him. 5/5/88: Vader vs Hiro Saito/Kobayashi: These always go a little longer than I think they should, but they're fun why they last. Obviously Vader kills these guys and Kobayashi especially flies around for him well. They have a couple of moments of hope when they can double team him and do get him off his feet, but then he'll just shrug both of them off of him and isolate one. He's developing more and more with every month. For this one they had Inoki on commentary with a broken leg and he's no Baba on commentary, let me tell you. 5/5/88: Saito/Choshu/Hase vs Fujiwara/Kimura/Koshinaka: This was fun. We get about ten minutes of it. Saito at one point just absolutely eats the Inazuma Leg Lariat. That stood out. Nice to see Fujiwara in with these guys, especially an exchange on the mat with Hase. I captured the finishing stretch here and it was very good with everyone hitting their stuff and Saito finally catching Koshinaka's second butt butt.

Sticking this here, but Morena Baccarin as the Sorceress in the He-Man movie is a very specific sort of casting.

Might be Nogami. I've got a great sense of Funaki, an increasingly good sense of Honaga, a solid sense of Sasaki, etc. But Nogami and Goto I don't have a great sense of yet. 1/4 of any project like this is just figuring who is who honestly. Oh, I clipped these, so you can see for yourself:

What's the date on that? I assume I have it before me somewhere but my source is missing some HHs that showed up in the last few years too and almost no one is going to have them.