ohtani's jacket

Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito vs. Rick Martel & Tony Garea (WWF, 11/29/81) I kind of expected Martel and Garea to win the tag belts back in quick succession, but I've since learned that Fuji and Saito held onto them for a lengthy period of time. This was an interesting match in the sense that instead of teasing the faces winning back the belts, it felt like the door had shut on them. Fuji was becoming increasingly devious and Saito looked awesome beating on Garea. Martel didn't get to unleash the way that he or the fans would have wanted. Garea was solid as the beatdown victim.

Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito vs. SD Jones & Tony Atlas (WWF, 11/14/81) I wasn't sure what SAMS was talking about during the beginning of this match, but man, once Atlas bleeds, this gets REALLY good. It's a heck of a bladejob for the era, and it leads to a huge dramatic conclusion where SD Jones takes on Fuji and Saito by himself until Atlas makes the save with a bloodied rag around his head. I have no idea where this spectacle came from. Rudman was marking out like it was real. Fun stuff.

I liked this a lot as I tend to prefer work rate Homicide to any other version. Everything was humming along nicely. The commentators did a good job of spelling out how long Homicide had waited to have an ROH title shot. Of course, they oversold how good the matches had been since every match that takes place in ROH has to be an instant classic, but they gave you a peek into Homicide's mindset during the match. The match would have been perfect if Aries had won with his first 450 splash. The crowd was in synch and ready to explode... 1..2... Julius Smokes with the save. This led to Bryan Danielson attacking Smokes, a decent nearfall from a Homicide lariat and then Aries doing rolling brain busters before winning with a 450 splash. We could have done without all that shit and had Aries win with the first 450 splash. That would have been the natural thing to do. ROH likes to sound its own horn, but there's been a ton of bullshit creeping into their matches since the debut show. That said, I liked the bout. Apparently, Homicide kicked out of a burning hammer at one which angered a lot of people,, but I didn't notice or care. This was the first Aries as champ match that I enjoyed.

Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (WWF, 10/19/81) Another fun bout. The contrast between Fuji and Saito is interesting. Fuji belongs to the lineage of Japanese-Hawaiian wrestlers that we first saw in the 50s while Saito belongs to the first generation of really good Japanese workers. Their pairing works nicely with Fuji doing the stooging and Saito doing the grunt work. It's a half-hearted tag match in terms of structure, but Martel brings plenty of fire. He would have made a great intercontinental champion if you ask me.

Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (WWF, 10/13/81) I'm not very familiar with WWF TV from this era aside from an angle or two, but this was intriguing for me for a number of reasons. First of all, my parents used to always name drop Rick Martel as someone they remembered from the NWA New Zealand shows they went to when they were dating. Secondly, Garea is announced as being from Auckland, New Zealand, which the ring announcer has a tough time pronouncing since us Kiwis don't pronounce the "au" sound the same way that Americans do. I kind of wish that this match had happened seven or eight years later, as us Kiwi kids would have gotten a kick out of it. We did get the Bushwhackers, I suppose, even if one of them was Australian. Masa Saito had to have been a top 5 Japanese wrestler at this point (no less than top 10), while the only time I ever saw Fuji wrestle was when he was a manager. There's not much difference to be honest. Just at this point he had an amazing partner. All of these factors made for an intriguing television bout. The end result was a fun television bout on par with the offerings from other territories.

Thanks for another great Yearbook. I enjoy these threads immensely. I'm so impressed by your stamina. I hope you've got the energy to keep going.

I was really impressed with the performance Atlantis and Panther gave here. They were able to work a modern style lucha match while still grounding it in the traditions of lucha title match wrestling, and their opponents reaped the benefits. It would have been incredibly easy to work a quick match with a bunch of dives. Instead, they worked a changing of the guard style match with Averno and Mephisto not only winning the tag belts but beating two masters of the form. The Infernales had finally arrived and Atlantis and Panther made sure they looked legit.

These are two guys I know I should watch more of, but there's only so much time in a month. They produced an entertaining bout. It got a bit silly towards the end with the fighting spirit shtick and calling out the name of their finishers, but Corino was always a bit tongue and cheek with the Japanese elements. I normally loathe indy commentating, but I thought the guys calling this were amusing.

I couldn't resist watching this. Ian Rotten is another of those guys I should be following. This was fun while it lasted, but the finish was soft. It was supposed to set up a rematch somewhere down the line, but I don't think it ever happened. Still, an interesting one off that would make a great compilation stuffer.

Since I like the Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles match so much, I figured I should probably watch Christopher Daniels more often. He worked the same basic style here as he does against Styles. It's very "counter-rific" for want of a better term. Not annoyingly so, but he definitely loves to pepper a match with counters and reversals. I did his flashy technical wrestler shtick, though. Hero works hard to keep up but seems slightly outmatched.

My expectations for Kawada are so low at this point that I could enjoy this without worrying whether it was any good or not. It's basically an average wrestling match, and instantly forgettable, but easily digestible. I am kind of curious whether it was a physical or mental thing that caused Kawada's decline. You'd have to think that the state All Japan was in played a part. I wonder if Kawada would've been better off freelancing. I suppose popping up places having interesting matches would have been no different to the random collection of opponents he faced as Triple Crown champion.

What I wanna know is if anyone is hardcore enough to watch those insufferably long Funaki/Shamrock matches from PWFG. Even I tapped out watching those. The most fun I ever had watching Funaki was the run he went on in 1990 when he returned from injury. If the UWF had continued into 1991, I have no doubt that Funaki would have been vying for the number one spot. And I still think Funaki vs. Rutten is one of the best pro-wrestling matches of the 90s.

It's a shame we didn't get any footage of Pat from France. IIRC, there's a match where he's introduced to the crowd.

There was a lot of confusion over the date here. The source of the match listed it as a 2005 bout, but after some sleuth work I've determined that it's from this combined NWA indy show. It matches up with everything that's said on commentary, but the mods can have the final say. Whatever the date is, this is an excellent 2/3 falls match. It's worked in front of a tiny crowd, but they ignore that fact and work a superbly crafted match. I sometimes wonder where wrestlers get the juice from to perform in front of 20 people as though it's 20,000, but somehow they do. This was an excellent example and was a brilliant match for fans of either man.

This must have caught me in a good mood as it was a hell of a lot better than I was expecting. The reason that I like it more than a lot of the other Homicide vs. Punk FIP bouts is that it was worked in an Armory, which meant that there wasn't a ton of room for them to walk around the area. Instead, they were forced to work a classic indy house show match in front of a tiny crowd, and I thought they excelled at that. There was a high level of crowd engagement and the BS stuff was fun pro-wrestling. I would rather watch Homicide work indy shoot style matches with Low Ki, but it's a feather in both guy's caps that they can work this kind of wrestling 101 match.