Reel in Place

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  ' Tiger Mask II vs La Fiera - August 26, 1984 Tiger Mask Misawa, and really every iteration of Tiger Mask, is polarizing. I'm not crazy about this run, but I don't think it's actively bad, either. In general, I am just sort of generally disappointed in most of the stuff, but there's also usually something cool. The tope in this match rules, but La Fiera is the real star here. Dick Murdoch vs Ray Gonzalez - November 17, 1991 A random TV match between a declining Dick Murdoch and a young Ray Gonzalez, where Murdoch may or may not break Gonzalez's orbital bone, and may or may not keep punching him in the head, while he bleeds buckets. Alexander Otsuka vs Takeshi Ono - March 9, 1996 Someone once described Alexander Otsuka as "Kurt Angle if he was good."   This is from the first Battlarts show, where Es are optional, but suplexes aren't. Low Ki vs Necro Butcher - A...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure. Mark Rocco vs Fuji Yamada - June 13, 1987 Maskless Liger comes to the ring with a sword, Mark Rocco comes to the ring looking like he read a book about how Japanese people dress. The match is good, though. Ronnie Garvin vs Russ Tyler - June 1, 1988 I've watched a ton of Crockett this year. A good chunk of it is just guys bleeding 7 seconds after the bell rings and matches that are too long, but Ron Garvin slaps the shit out of people, like 2020 Kazuyuki Fujita without the postmodern staring contest. Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera - November 3, 1991 I write this every week, but I don't know anything about Lucha. So, whatever I say may, and probably will, be wrong. Octagon has never impressed me, I haven't seen a ton, but he seems to just be there most of the time. Fuerza seems pretty good. This match is great though, the best performance I've ever seen from Octagon. Vader vs Dan Bobish...

The whole playlist is  here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.   Riki Choshu vs Rick Martel -  October 19, 1985 I'm trying to watch more Rick Martel. I know him from his WWF stuff, which is whatever. He's a pretty great tag team wrestler in the 80s, but by the 90s he's very much ok, and that includes his brief run in WCW, which is one of the most overrated runs in wrestling history. I haven't seen much of his AWA stuff, and none of his stuff in Portland, but this AWA title defense against Choshu is awesome. Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls - Novermber 24, 1987 Wrestlemania III aired on FS1 the other day. Steamboat/Savage is great, but this is the best match in 1987 WWF. Vader vs Naoki Sano - October 4, 1993 I'm ambivalent about Vader in UWFi. Some of it is great, the Tamura match and the first Takada match. Some of it is disappointing, the Albright match and the last Takada match are both kinda stinkers. But this match here, this one...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  Andre the Giant vs Franz Van Buyten - January 20, 1968 A ton of this wrestling from France showed up online fairly recently. I haven't watched it, but this match got some hype, mostly for being an early Andre match, so I watched it. Franz Van Buyten, who I believe is a German wrestler of some note, spams a bunch of 'ranas in 1968, for real. Giant Baba vs Pedro Morales - June 13, 1974 This is the best Pedro Morales match I've ever seen, which isn't saying much, I haven't seen a lot and most of it has stunk. Baba takes multiple kitchen sink bumps for Pedro, because Baba rules. Invader #1 vs Super Black Ninja - January 30, 1988 I know people don't like Invader, and I'm sure he isn't a great human, but if we're gonna let Chris Benoit's friends rehab his image, we can enjoy some Invader matches. Invader is maybe the best bleeder in wrestling history, he bleeds here w...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  Bruno Sammartino vs Waldo Von Erich - June 16, 1975 Waldo Von Erich is a Nazi. Nazis occupied Bruno's village, forcing Bruno to flee to the mountains where some days they ate snow for lack of food. Waldo stabs Bruno. Bruno beats his ass with one arm. Naomichi Marufuji vs Akira Taue - March 5, 2006 Opinions on Marufuji differ. I like him, but I can see why people don't. Some of his stuff looks bad, some of his stuff is just kind of stupid. Aside from that, this match has a lot of fun counters, including Taue grabbing a chokeslam out of a Shiranui attempt. Post-prime Taue is the best of the post-prime Pillars. Larry Zbyszko vs Sgt. Slaughter - September 7, 1985 I dig Zbyszko, he has a rep for stalling and doing a lot of nothing, which is mostly unfounded. He rules. Sgt, Slaughter, not a real military officer apparently, is one of the best wrestlers ever and takes a stupid bump to the outside on a mi...