MJH

This is just great. It's so simply worked that, by rights, anyone should be able to do it, but this is the hair/mask match that we have on tape because they simply do it better than anyone else I've/we've seen. One thing that irks me to no end with modern "epic" matches is the patchiness of the selling. Their body language is awful. Sure, they'll sell the shit out of the match between moves, but when they're called upon to hit a move, you wouldn't know how beaten up they've been. Chicana here does, what? Two dives, throws some punches, and the submission that wins it. When he wins the second fall he can't stand up to have his hand raised. Even when he makes a cover after MS1 misses a move, he's still out of it, and MS1 can cover him and get a near fall out of that. Even with the massive blood loss that, at least visually, evens up the toll to some extent, it's MS1 who's doing the running around and climbing the ropes in the third fall. There's no super hero comeback here: Chicana is always holding on in, never really in control, never really close to winning, until he does. They do the three-act structure whilst, really, the match is just one long ass curve from Chicana busted open before he's even out of his ring jacket to getting his hand raised. Even after the match, sure, he's celebrating, he gives MS1 a few shots, and he's finally back to his feet, but the toll of the match is still there. Best match ever? Probably not. Best match on this set? We'll see when it's done. But it's hard to imagine this type of match ever being done better than it is right here.

I'm with others in having this as a nice but middle-of-the-road trios. I love Pirata Morgan, and whilst he took some fantastic bumps here, he also looked young and far from the late-'80s super-worker version I'm used to at times. Herodes impressed me the most. Looking him up beforehand, he was described as a lost great rudo, very athletic for his size who always made the technicos look great. That's right on. This suffered a little coming after all those tighter title matches in that some of the opening sequences looked looser than they otherwise might have. I thought Kevin did OK all things considered, and I liked him doing two immediate payback spots. How many times had he worked Mexico before this? There was a glaring familiarity compared to the others, but I'm sure if we had every foreigner's first trios match on tape there'd be plenty that were far more awkward and messy. 6 matches in, nothing to really write home about yet, and four of them having Japanese commentary is weird, but something tells me that's about to change...

Canek seems to have a real problem pushing an advantage in his matches. The first fall was fine, and even if the finish was quick, which you expect, the senton-elbow was at least something somewhat new to me as a move and looked effective enough. The second was shorter, and if Canek "hurts" himself on the cross-chop, allowing Fujinami to take over, I'd want him to be more expressive in his selling. He just lay there. It's a fine spot, he needed only hold his neck, arm, leg, whatever he hurt on landing. But then in the third Fujinami wants to keep the pressure on to start (which makes sense) only for Canek to grab him into the corner, clean break, and go into a knucklelock. Fujinami gets an opening in the next sequence, starts kicking the leg, we know where he's going, only for Canek to take him down and hold him in a near-choke? He seems to get the idea with a couple of nice suplexes, and the submissions until the figure-four-on-the-floor were sold as potential match enders rather than rest holds... but then, after suplexing Fujinami back into the ring, covering for a near fall, Canek just rolls towards the ropes and lays there? Fujinami was selling the leg, gave Canek a good thirty seconds to do something to him... and nothing? Fujinami had no choice but to go on offence. The finishing sequence was fine (and pulling the ref to block a tope should be lifted by a smarmy heel), but for all the nice little elements and spots we had here, there were too many moments were my reaction was "what the fuck" to put it ahead of the Corleone match (which I had problems with but came together better) and, other than the Andre match, which really wasn't a match, this is the worst match on the set so far for me.

Ha. Thanks. I heard their names on commentary and figured one or the other.

Firstly, add me to those who got a "'70s NWA-style" vibe. Given what I knew/know of Canek, I was surprised by how quiet the crowd seemed (other than the pop at the finish), though this isn't against an American (which it would obviously be nice to have an example or two of, but, y'know, footage and what-not). The opening matwork was, like the match before it, solid, without being blowaway. It wasn't quite as tight and snappy as the former but these guys are 50lbs-or-so bigger. In all, I'll probably have them at about the same level, but this is the more disappointing of the two, I felt, because it came closer to being very good. Canek's control at the start of the second fall dragged on and began to lose me, but when Corleone took over, won the fall, and did a number on Canek's back in the process, they had me back and he structure was working. Had Canek's comeback been more than a missed senton, and had they took 3/4 minutes from the second and used them to pace out the end of the third, this would've been really good. As it is, it's still decent, with some good stuff, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

This was fine. The matwork at the start was solid, but nothing you wouldn't see done as good/better in a thousand other matches. I'm not sure how Negro would look in a regular trios match: he didn't measure his steps when running the ropes and had they done more of it it would've been distracting. He also should've realised he couldn't bridge high enough to hold the butterfly suplex. And I'm not sure if the finish was planned but, whilst Thesz' counts were quicker than normal (for Mexico at any rate) they were consistent, and had Negro not known in the first fall, he certainly did by that point. Then again, why were the Japanese crew filming the show if Hamada wasn't scheduled to win? Was there another (bigger star) fly-in on this card? Anyway, as Rob said, this was a perfectly-inoffensive match.

This is the kind of match where the only fair rating is n/a. It's enjoyable enough (some of the spots don't come off so well, but those that do are good), and you can see charisma and talent in Chicana (whose squaring up to Andre at the start drew a laugh from me). Honestly, I'd've rather this have been a singles between Andre/Chicana, though I get why it wasn't. But, if nothing else, it's a nice example of what Andre was doing in most places in the '70s/early '80s. But, given the wristlock spots early, they should've had the referee picked up when he tries to raise Andre's hand.

This was a nice opener. Hamada looked great, and I agree with Graham that his flying looks uniquely-crisp as opposed to just elegant or whatever. Perro/Baby's offence being very simple obviously made a strong contrast to Hamada/Sayama's - senton aside - and I always get a kick out of a face/technico whose first offence upon making a comeback is to do a payback spot (in this case Hamada posting Perro). Sayama hurting himself on the handspring headbutt thus allowing the rudos to take over was a nice transition, though most of the other ones were a bit too simplistic. It was probably the right length too, as they'd started repeating a few spots at the end. Still, a fine little build-up match for Hamada/Perro.