I found a few clips from the Brussels lucha show, thought I'd link them all in one place for myself and for anyone else who might have been interested:

Cassandro vs. Magno:

Nearly complete match, great quality

Mascarita Dorada vs. Octagoncito:

Complete match (Saturday show)

Negro Navarro vs. Solar I:

Finish (Saturday show)

Santo/Cassandro vs. Solitario/Magno:

First caida (part 1)(part 2)
Beginning of second caida
The dives
End of first caida (different angle)

I'm cross-posting this from my wrestling blog. It's half about the lucha, half about the day to Brussels, and all about the jokes. Enjoy.

Ah, Brussels. To me, the very name conjures up an image of the people of Brussels going about their lives and their work in the city where they work and live. Of course, whatever else you may think, there is one thing we can all agree on - Brussels is not in Oxford. Yet, that is where I found myself on Sunday morning, nine hours before the Cirque Royal hosted the second of two Todo X El Todo shows which I had a ticket for.

I set off at half five of the morn, first by car (Suzuki Swift, my flat to the bus stop), then by bus (Oxford Espress, bus stop to Baker Street) then by underground train (underground train, Baker Street to London St Pancras). I have never travelled on the Eurostar before, and it was an enjoyable experience. Recent air journeys has conditioned me to associate checking in and passport control with invasive personal searches and ludicrous restrictions on hand luggage contents, so it was refreshing to meet the bored eyes of an attendent who couldn't care less if I went through the scanner laden with metal coins and have packed in my bag a bottle of (non-clear) Apple Tango. Ha! The fools. They won't be so care-free when I work out how to make an explosive device out of metal coins and (non-clear) Apple Tango. I concede that the prototypes have been failures, mainly looking like damp metal coins.

I watched some of disc three of the New Japan set on the train (Killer Khan vs. Andre is a really great match, Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask is a really bad match) and listened to Immortal's 'Pure Holocaust' on the iPod, then arrived at Brussels Midi at 12.30pm, Belgian time, and took the metro to Madou, the final leg of the journey. It was at this point I stepped outside for the first time since Baker Street. The first thing you notice about Brussels is how cold and wet it is during a freak storm which killed fifty people in France that day. I walked towards Grand Place for a quick ham and cheese omlette, chips and a Tongerlo Dubbel (brune, if you're asking), Belgian beer being a secondary reason for making a day trip to Brussels. Back to the theatre for 2.30pm, collected tickets, took seats.

The Cirque Royal was a really nice venue, seating down to floor level all the way around the ring, then a huge ring of balcony seats going up a long way. According to Santo, the Saturday show was a sell-out. This was not, however, but most of the lower seats were full. The crowd was a mixture, plenty of masked children in Rey Mysterio t-shirts with parents, some older rowdy teens and then plenty of couples both young and old who had gone out for the Sunday to watch some lucha libre. There was no-one there who looked liked they be chanting at a wXw show, for example.

The show started about twenty minutes late, which is practically early by most lucha shows standard. There were two annoucers, one in French and the other in Flemish due to the biligual status of Belgium's capital. I was waiting for Terry Wogan to summarise it in English (a niche joke, at best). They were probably doing the standard "lucha for non-lucha fans" spiel about lucha being about good vs. evil, technicos vs. rudos and then, out of nowhere they are both saying "Black Terry", and I shot out of my mental happy place where I retreat every time foreign languages are spoken around me. Black Terry is my favourite luchadore in the world, I was thinking only last week how I may never see him live as he doesn't seem to be one of the guys who does Santo's European tours. And there he is, first guy out. In a referee's top. Mother of fuck. Who flies Black Terry out to Belgium just to referee? I will tell you now: it was not a Jesus who loves me.

Anyway, we are five paragraphs in, so let's talk about the wrestling. The opening match was the minis title match, with Pentagoncito against Mascarita Dorado (who, unless I've forgotten what he normally wears, was dressed as a mini el Hijo del Santo. A Santitocito, if you will). I thought this worked well as an introduction to the style, which is a good idea on a show promoted as much to art fans as to die-hard lucha fans. They started simple, with the rowdy teens ironically cheering every takedown and moved on to some arm drags and other lucha rope running stuff. They seemed to be having some problem with the ropes, which were too loose. Also, Dorada ended up botching a springboard moosault after slipping off the top rope. Pentagon drew boos by pelting Dorada in the chest a bunch of times, and it was nice to be amongst people who aren't desensitised to that. Slaps to the chest, as we shall see, were a great way of getting heel heat on this show. I think I was hoping for something more spectacular though, Dorado seemed quite restrained. This wasn't, for example, the exhibition that Dorada vs. Pequeno Damien 666 was from last year, but then Pentagoncito is nowhere near the base that Damien is.

Next up was Solar vs. Negro Navarro. They were wrestling an una caida match, so we got a sixteen minute matwork masterclass, as they worked through some of their extensive repetoire. They build up from simple takedowns to longer counter wrestling sequences and more unlikely submission and while I'm aware this may be a minority interest - it did not strike me that many people around the arena were watching this thinking to themselves, "here's the WKO100 third best wrestler of 2009" - I found it mesmerising. I think I may have been sat agog because I had the sense that the little Mysterio-shirted kid next to me was looking at me as if to say, "Whats so great about this? Where's the 619?". "Screw you, little kid", I said back inside my brain, "and watch these two guys take each other down in 619 different ways". Yes, I'm quite the quick thinker when I have time to write down an imaginary conversation nearly a day later.

I guess, objectively, it was about standard for them, but there were a couple of thing I found from seeing the live version. Firstly, they never stop talking. It's either meaningless noise or Spanish (the happy place again beckons), but it really adds to the competitive one-upmanship. Secondly, one of the reasons they work so well together is the way they split to roles. Solar is constantly interacting with the crowd, posing, encouraging them to cheer, whilst Navarro is nearly stoic, occasionally nodding his head when he knows he's been bested or sniffing in derision. Standing there, he looks like the toughest human being on the planet, it is an aura that almost can not be quantified, and only live performances do it justice. After about fifteen minutes of matwork, Navarro slaps Solar in the chest and the audience really react, whilst he slowly turns his head around to look at the most vocal with a slight smile and menace in his eyes. Just a tremendous performance.

After an interval of thirty minutes, they introduce a title match between Angel Blanco and Hurracan Ramirez Jr. This wasn't particularly good, and was the time during the show when my brain really went, "you booked this over a Black Terry match? He's standing right there, and he would have made Ramirez look amazing". Angel Blanco did some decent bumping, but this mainly struck me as not having many ideas, and the ones they did have weren't really well executed. They even did two near identical tope spots.

The main event was Cassandro and El Hijo del Santo vs. Magno and el Hijo del Solitario. Right up front - this was the most fun I have ever had watching a wrestling match ever. Before I start wheeling out superlatives, this was a best of three fall match with a classic formula: technico fall, rudo fall, comeback technico fall. Cassandro comes out and I will say (as a tribute to Eric), he was wearing a fabulous two piece robe radiating the same brilliant blue as the heavens from where he descended. This is what he was wearing the night before. He had unreal hair both days, looked truly beautiful and felt a confusion I had not felt since my corporal beatings in the headmasters office during my boarding days at Repton. I have seen two recent Cassandro matches previously, yet from those and (mostly) from this, I have no problem calling him the most spectacular wrestler, anywhere, in the world.

I love the reaction he got, which was identical to the first time I saw him in the London show. I didn't understand the tradition of exoticos in lucha libre, assumed he'd do an entertaining gay or drag queen act with a load of schtick. What nobody expected is the extent of his athletic gifts. His first armdrag and flip up are met with a collective "Wha?". From then on he continued to amaze a crowd that was already won over. His execution is perfect. His workrate is tireless - he'll go from one takedown, to a quick hip shake at the crowd then run straight into the next sequence. He drops in comedy spots before doing something else. I loved his rope running bit where he prances over Solitario. I got the impression from the short video on Belgian TV that on the first night Santo, maybe the luchadore with, did a lot more of his spots in the first caida. In this match he took a back seat and allowed Cassandro a complete showcase. They also both seemed to be having a great time, Cassandro was smiling almost constantly, which could only add to the enjoyment.

Santo is someone I love watching so much that providing I see him once in a year, for long enough to go, "yeah, he's still El Hijo del motherfucking Santo", he'll appear in my list of the best wrestlers alive. I also really enjoyed the rudos. El Hijo del Solitario was hugely entertaining, from the moment he camply ran to the ring lip-syncing to AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long', thrusting himself into the turnbuckle. He ran up into the crowd at the start to shout at a teen, followed by Santo who walloped him in the middle of the people. Both rudos bumped all over and did everything they needed to do in a match all about the technicos. They both also had some really stiff strikes, I remember Cassandro taking an audibly nasty right hand from Magno to the side of the head, and Santo ends up sprawled across the front row while Solitario chopped him right in the chest. In fact, the rudos were so aggressive in the second fall that they had the old lady (and many others) next to me covering her eyes after a series of strikes, then a senton, then a double team assisted front lungblower.

The deciding fall finished with stereo topes (the ring rocking as our technicos hit the ropes at the same time), Santo's like a dart and Cassandro's with a little giro. Our seats were above to exit right in front of the ring, so the dives came towards and then under us. The visual of seeing Santo and Cassandro dive out of the ring and then right out of sight was amazing. The whole theatre, young children and elderly couples alike, cheered and laughed and clapped in awe and it was just a fantastic moment.

After the show I followed a similar route to the one I took there, only in reverse. I forwent stopping around afterwards for photos to make sure I made my train, only realising when I got there how much time I would have had to spare. In keeping with a theme I listened to Immortal's 'Sons of Northern Darkness' and watched a couple more New Japan matches, but mostly half-slept. I got home at half ten, British time, and then did the other half of the sleep. A good day.

I'm having a day in Brussels tomorrow, which is about the most 21st century thing I've probably said. It is a much smaller world than it used to be.

The reason I am going is to watch a lucha libre show. Mexican lucha libre is the most unique of all the forms of professional wrestling. It transcends Mexican culture in a way that other forms do not. It's also a lot more performance, rather than accurately imitating a sporting contest. Both explain why this show is actually part of a month long Mexican culture week in Brussels in a theatre - the Cirque Royal - and other shows have been organised in venues, like the Lourve last year, where wrestling fans are not necessarily the target audience.

The card is stacked, with el Hijo del Santo, Negro Navarro, Solar I and Cassandro all performing. The middle two are thirty year veterans, maestros, still amazing to watch (actually, they have improved with age), and I figure it may be my only opportunity to see them live. Cassandro is a guy I come to know recently and is an incredible performer, but one who has rarely appeared on video. And Santo is the most famous luchadore alive today, a guy who embodies everything great about lucha both as an in-ring performer and as a part of the mythology that make it such a transcendent artform.

Exhausting a day as it may be to travel to Belgium and back in less than 18 hours, I am massively excited.

Going to a wrestling show tonight. Dragon Gate is one of the larger Japanese indy promotions, and to be honest one of my least favourite. That said, live puro ten minutes down the road from me (its at the Regal on Cowley Road) is rare - this, to my knowledge is the only UK show any Japanese promotion is putting on this year, so its proximity is too much of a reason not to go.

It should be fun at least - the Dragon Gate guys may be weak at putting together coherent wrestling matches, but they can fly around all over the place which should be a spectacle. The atmosphere will probably be fairly contagious too - UK fans, wrestling starved as we are, are usually great, providing they don't try to imitate the more annoying tendencies of US indy fans (chants of "this is awesome" after two minutes of action). More on this, later.

I was all set to come and write about the honeymoon. Then I found out Mitsuharu Misawa was dead, and I don't feel like it anymore.

Misawa was the president of NOAH, Japan's second largest promotion. He was still active in the ring, and while older, still pushing his body in the style he helped popularise in the 1990s - hard hitting, realistic, dramatic and exciting. He died of a cardiac arrest following a standard back bump in a tag match in Hiroshima today.

He was All Japan's top guy - or ace - during those years, and produced many of the decades, and history's, greatest matches. There was never an ace like Misawa. His style was a blend of heavyweight striking, bumping and in-ring storytelling, combined with a heavy influences of junior heavyweights: the high spots, the aerial moves, the incredible pace.

With Misawa at the top, All Japan main events and quality professional wrestling were near synonymous - the increase in intensity and impact that started at the end of the 1980s, combined with the traditional rooting in in-ring story-telling and drama, was carried much further by Misawa and his peers. While I always favoured company number two Toshiaki Kawada for in-ring performance, Misawa was by far more influential and much more of a driving force of this revolution. Their match on June 3rd 1994 is simply the greatest, most perfect singles match ever wrestled in Japan, if not globally.

In recent years, the years of physical abuse clearly taking a toll, his role has shifted towards a tired veteran - still fighting, still great, but constrained by a body that isn't what it was. His final GHC title run, culminating with the loss to Takeshi Morishima last year was typified by this, and he found him almost as compelling to watch then as I did during his physical peak. You always hope that these icons of pro wrestling can finish with dignity, and see out their (hopefully many) days in comfort. That his end came in the ring, at the age of 46, obviously fails to meet that criteria, although there is something tragically inevitable that a man who pushed his body for twenty five years would finally be overcome by it.

I hope NOAH survives this, and although this little corner of the internet isn't going to be seen by those it is intended for, I extend my condolences to his family and friends, to the NOAH roster and to its fans.

Mitsuharu Misawa, 1962-2009.

Something I found today that is great, and needs to be watched.

Two out of four predictions right on the snooker. Selby was robbed (by the unfair process of winning less frames). My semifinal predictions are unlikely to be correct, given I didn't even get the possible matches right. It's been a ridiculously good tournament.

I have started a new blog, which I will be using to post about the professional wrestling. This is so if I want to write about that, people who don't care (my "friends") no longer have to read it.

Prizes for working out what the name of the site is all about, though.

OK, Cath's out, dinner has been had, I have been dried by towels. Wrestling DVDs have been stacked up by the TV. Let's play.

7.01pm: I'm finishing off the end of the February 2008 K-Dojo show, which I watched most of last night. Main event time: OMEGA's Yuji Hino and KAZMA vs. Kengo Mashimo and (far too pretty for a boy) Madoka. This has a big match feel, which is appropriate. I love Hino for the genuine joy on his face as he acts like a complete dickbag. He reminds me of, well, me, actually. It's entertaining and that's good because the heat section on Madoka is pretty long. It also makes his come-uppance seem truly satisfying. Mashimo finally gets in and does his thing - lots of big kicks and strikes. Madoka does a good job of making his gravity-defying offence look credible. Mashimo bumps huge for Hino's lariat as we get to the core of the match - company ace vs top heel. We get some interference from OMEGA and an over the top rope tope con giro from Madoka and then its the near falls and finishers until after loads of that Madoka blocks KAZMAs lariat and hits his Ranhei and picks up the win. Nothing ground-breaking, but loads of action, as to be expected from a K-Dojo main event.

7.29pm: I don't understand Japanese, so all the post-match chat passes me by. A shame - the crowd are laughing a lot. Time for the next show, I think. And a cup of tea. I love my evening.

7.35pm: I love GAORA television's Puroresu King theme - "Drunken Lullabies" by Flogging Molly. It's so gloriously appropriate sounding for the clips. My cup of tea is ready.

7.38pm: Men vs women tag match to start, with a couple of K-Dojo's comedy guys taking on Yuu Yamagata and Apple Miyuki. This is Apple Miyuki. Good times. Quite clipped.

7.56pm: The first three matches are all quite clipped actually. The main events must be long. GENKIRIN vs. NOSAWA Rongai, MAZADA and TAKEMURA could have been good - I really like Saburo Inematsu.

8.07pm: Cath comes in, lighting up my life and ruining my perfectly good evening of watching wrestling on the TV with hot drinks. Quick move to the laptop, and the show moves on to Boso Boy Raito vs. Teppei Ishizaka for Raito's UWA Middleweight title. Boso Boy is just the right mix of serious high flying wrestling and super hero goofiness. Ishizaka, well, mainly he attacks people with his behind. They actually work a pretty straight, mat-based match though, with just a slight comedic edge. Well, OK, not entirely, but mostly. It felt like they were trying to do a little too much and the finish wasn't as dramatic as it should have been after half an hour, but I thought this was hugely surprising in its decentness.

9.05pm: Main event is a three way, three man team tag match, with all the people. Question is - if you going to book this, can it be crazy awesome like a Dragon Gate match? Well, it was 22 minutes of literally non-stop action, with loads of spots that used the gimmick of the match, several moments that made me laugh out loud, a couple of great dives, and a strong finish that didn't feel like it dragged on too long. That isn't actually a yes, but I loved this match.

9.47pm: Time for a Daily Show and Colbert break. More to follow (probably last night's RAW).

11.05pm: Start watching RAW. Kofi Kingston vs. Paul Burchill is the first match. Interesting fact about Burchill - he was once in the ring with a young Craig Holmes. That's another story. He also played rugby in the premiere league, says Michael Cole. Oh, Jesus. It's premier, Frenchie. This did what was needed - Kofi is bouncy enough to be fun to watch, and he seems to be getting a bit of a following, so that's good. Mickie James vs. Katie Lea next. Interesting fact about Katie Lea - she was once in a match refereed by a young Craig Holmes. That's another of the same story. The match was a highly energetic four minute version of a much better twelve minute match. Beth Phoenix attacks Mickie after, which means one thing - Santino Marella is on my TV, to bring the awesome.

11.48pm: William Regal is out. Interesting fact about Regal - he once in a TV segment enjoyed by a young Craig Holmes. It was this one, brawling with Jamie Noble. No match? Shame. Next up, JBL and Jericho vs. CM Punk, for the title shot at Summerslam. Match has a ten minute time limit. Punk is massively over tonight. And this match is great. Super-heated and exciting.

12.13am: Cena's promo is excellent. Seriously, no-one does the big match interview better. Main event is Cena and Batista vs. Dibiase and Rhodes for the tag titles. God, I'm such a mark for Cena. The match is all about the one-upmanship between Cena and Batista, and while I object to using the young tag champs as a prop for that, I forgive it. Firstly, Rhodes and Dibiase looked competitive with two former world champs. Cena sell huge for them. Secondly, they'll get the belts back, meaning they'll BEAT two former champs. Thirdly, the execution of the story was perfect - the expectation that tensions between Cena and Batista would lead to them starting to fight each other was flipped on its head when Dave decides to win the belts almost single-handedly, as the ultimate fuck-you. This might be my favourite WWE match of this year.

12.50am: No work tomorrow means I'm going to put one more DVD on. My Big Japan comps don't work for some reason, so I've opted for an El Dorado show from last August. I've watched little El Dorado before, but they are an off-shoot of Ultimo Dragon's gym, meaning there will be much flying and flippery.

1.54am. Which I have done, but I'm too tired to write about. Bed now. A good day.

This is just wrong. Let me explain why.

There used to be quite a big thing in wrestling called kayfabe. Kayfabe is the insider term for all the stuff in wrestling that, while fictional, is played as being real. It's as important on screen as an actor not breaking character during a film. In wrestling, though, continuing the act off-screen, in public, on other shows or just on the street also used to be very important. After all, wrestling is a performed version of a sporting event, and with all sporting events, people like to support certain competitors. Thus, not breaking character off-screen helps the product on-screen.

So Kofi isn't callously denying his heritage to get ahead in his chosen career. It's what he is expected to do. Now, kayfabe isn't the same anymore. In the age of the Internet, fans got "smart" to the business. Old wrestlers wrote books. Show writers ackowledged the existence of kayfabe by writing angles for shows where a character came out and broke kayfabe (for example, by going on a rant about other wrestlers and using insider terms to fans). Top WWE stars do interviews on chatshows with a metaphorical wink to the camera. But even given all that, it still exists. And if Kofi has been given the character of a Jamaican to play (a tool that has often been used in wrestling, where a certain nationality represents a certain attitude), then he shall play it, and if he takes particular pride in his work, then continuing the act outside the ring is not in any way unusual.

Why people still try to write about wrestling as if its another sport, then make jabs about how it isn't really a sport, is beyond me. We all got it a long time ago. Do catch up.

Last night, Wayne, Ad and I went to watch Pro Wrestling NOAH's first ever UK show. NOAH are one of the top two Japanese promotions, and are the only one to really looking to expand into other markets. Aside from one rubbishy show in Oxford a few years ago, this was (incredibly) my first live wrestling event. It was really great.

The first thing I realised is how much more involved I got with the matches, compared to watching on DVD. I won't often audibly react to recorded wrestling, but I must have jumped out of my seat a dozen times last night, and involuntarily shouted variations on 'oooohh' or 'woooah' countless times more. To be expected, perhaps - the same thing happens with live comedy - and NOAH's high-impact style naturally creates such reactions.

Wayne and Ad agreed with my basic point about Japanese wrestling - compared to it's US equivalent, the standard is consistently high, and the performers are generally much harder working. In almost all the matches, it would be hard to argue that the guys weren't give the effort the audience hoped for, and frequently exceeded it. Match of the night was clearly KENTA and Ishimori vs. Bryan Danielson and Eddie Edwards. This was exhausting just to watch: nearly 30 minutes in length, they built through the first fifteen minutes with the opening flurries and the heat section on Ishimori, before they hit the finishing straight of finishers and finishers and finishers. Everything was at top speed and super smooth. KENTA made me wince about fifty or sixty times with these brutal kicks, and his finishing knee strike to Edwards probably broke his face - no mean feat since I'm pretty sure he broke his face early in the match with a nasty looking kick.

This match totally sold me on Danielson as 'best in the world'. From immediately establishing himself as heel, drawing boos from an audience that would have gladly loved him, and following that up acts of cowardice that drew further ire from the crowd, I realised that not only is he the best technical wrestler on the planet, but he's now the complete package.

The other top match was the main event - Kenta Kobashi and Go Shiozaki vs. Mitsuharu Misawa and Naomichi Marufuji. Just to be so close to two of the most celebrated wrestlers of the last twenty years was AWESOME - Misawa may be broken down and Kobashi is also showing his age, but really that just added to the richness of the match - they play the tired, grizzled veterans, and while they may only have a couple of weapons in their arsenal, but they both use their strikes to maximum effect. Kobashi's corner chops drew a standing ovation. Meanwhile, Marafuji works for four men, bumping around the ring, acting as a huge jerk to Kobashi, and then running the length of the entrance ramp, leaping over the top rope and delivering a huge, breath-taking dropkick. Go's game too - his moonsault, for a big guy, was glorious.

The rest of the card featured a number of very good matches - Nigel McGuinness was really great in his tag match, and I really enjoyed opener Joel Redman vs. Atushi Aoki. Morishima was working injured, regrettably, because I really wanted to see the future company ace in full flow. That said, his one big lariat was killer.

The event was recorded, and I'll probably buy it on DVD. I suspect, if I hadn't seen it live, I wouldn't have thought it were quite so great. The juniors tag, in particular, would certainly have been judged too long and slightly overkill-y. But I did - and I'm all in favour of anything that make me enjoy things more.

Haven't put up anything interesting for a while, but little of actual interest has happened. Planned to have a day of watching loads of wrestling (as the Lord intended of the Sabbath), so here I present...

Craig's Day of Watching The Professional Wrestling Log of Words and Thoughts

The story so far: Of late, I have mainly been watching my two favourite Japanese indie promotions, Zero-One MAX and Kaientai-Dojo. Of my most recent batch of DVDs, I have one K-Dojo show left to watch. That will occur later.

Looking through my hard drive, I appear to have one Ring of Honor show (a north-east US independent promotion that is, by some way, the biggest and most celebrated indie in the country), and one WWE PPV that I'm really not all that interested in. WWE shows vary dramatically in quality, but there's one match I've been sold on, so I'll probably skip to that at some point. There's a couple of unwatched matches from New Japan's April 13th show, including the the Tanaka vs. Kanemoto that's being heavily praised.

What else? A 4-DVD set of the best 20 lucha libre matches of the 1990s, as voted by on the DVDVR. Awesome. I've seen some of the matches before, but there's also some real hard-to-find matches on that list that I've wanted to see for ages.

But first, I'm on the second day of the GPWA's 2007 Differ Cup, a junior heavyweight tag team tournament featuring representatives from NOAH, and loads of smaller indie promotions. The final, the main event from this show, will be DDT's HARASHIMA and Kota Iibushi vs. K-Dojo's Madoka and Kengo Mashimo, which should be great. But first to plow through the undercard.

12:10pm: Show opens with the two Big Mouth Loud shoot-fight guys who were knocked out in the first round against two other indie guys who I don't know. Fun and kicky, and a nice story - two shooters target the smaller opponent, finally isolating from his larger partner who has been saving him from defeat. Nothing else particularly interesting in the first half - a tag with TAKA and Kikuchi that was less than the sum of its parts, and a ten-man tag with Marafuji and Minoru Fujita that was entertaining but forgetable.

13.30pm: Second disc goes in. This should be better. El Dorado's Hercules Senga and KAGETORA versus Osamu Namiguchi and Ikuto Hidaka. I'm a huge Hidaka fan, and this match didn't disappoint. Loads of actions, high flying, Hidaka using his rookie partner as a weapon. Cool. The Ring of Honor world title was then defended in Japan, with then-champion Takeshi Morishima against K-Dojo's KAZMA. My general impression going into to this is that its a total mismatch. Morishima's the guy who will beat Misawa within a year to win the GHC title, and has been dominant in matches in NOAH and ROH. KAZMA's one of only two heavyweights in K-Dojo, but isn't the ace or champion. And that's how the match played out. KAZMA got some offence in, but I never felt like he was close to winning. Morishima moves up a gear in the last couple of minutes, and easily finishes him off. Good story, if not the best wrestling contest because of it. What a paradox.

A small break of several hours occurs, while tasks are done and girlfriends are entertained.

18.00pm: Time to watch the final before I make some dinner. Rightfully so, the match features four of the top names in Japanese indie wrestling in 2007, including K-Dojo's champ Mashimo and DDT's champ HARASHIMA. Mashimo sells a weak leg from his semi-final, which occupies the early focus of the match, before the switch to the heat section on Iibushi. But the finishing stretch (at it is a huge stetch) is the really exciting part. All four work in all of their big moves except for Mashimo's brainbuster, which Iibushi keeps avoiding. Finally, Madoka takes HARASHIMA out with a super-fast tope suicida, and Mashimo lands his knockout blow. This match is really what is great about Japanese indy wrestling - hard work, exciting sequences of moves, stiff kicks. Plus, it managed to not seem like overkill, which happens a lot in big indie singles matches - seemingly endless repetition of moves until one finally gets a win. Here, the tag team structure allows multiple near falls, as each team's partner's are able to stop their opponents winning by breaking up pins. The selling was good too, unlike many indie matches, where guys take a load of offense, and then pop up as fresh as at the beginning of the match.

19.54pm: Put WWE Judgement Day on. I'll be skipping over it pretty fast. Cena vs. JBL was all psychology, and was good because of it. I would have prefered a brawl, but there was nothing wrong with what they did. I'm not a huge fan of the WWE surprise-finisher ending, and with better finishing stretch, this would have been great. Kane/Punk vs. Miz/Morrison was energetic, but pretty short and formulaic.

20.30pm: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels is the match I wanted to see. I loved their Wrestlemania XIX match in 2003, so I knew this would likely be good. The early section featured some great sequences and matwork. What I liked about this match was the variety of counters both men found for each other signature spots - Jericho's dropkick, Michaels' kip-up, Jericho's Lionsault and then Michaels' counter to the Lionsault. And Jericho feigning injury, given the backstory, to avoid Michaels' finish was a nice touch. The Jericho/HBK/Batista feud is pretty much the most interesting thing in the promotion, and the lack of good guy and bad guy definition is what is doing it. Quickly watch the women's three way - this was good by Diva standards. I've been a fan of the WWE women for a while, especially when they just let the girls go out and wrestle. Mickie James and Melina are the best the division has to offer at the moment.

I'm not interested in anything else on the show, so I go and do the washing up.

22.40pm: The January 6th 2008 K-Dojo show goes on. Quite an unusual show, in that there's a lot of participation from guys from other promotions: Osaka Pro, El Dorado, Big Japan Wrestling, Michinoku Pro, Zero-One MAX and Dragon Gate are all represented. That's basically everyone, ever. Short clips of the first couple of matches. The MEN's Club vs. OMEGA six-man was as fun as Oishi/Asahi tag always are - a bit of comedy, lots of cool flying. The hardcore match between Inematsu and Toshima and the two heavily scarred guys from BJW, Sasaki and Miyamoto, was by no means the most crazy deathmatch I'd ever seen, but it was a significant change of pace for K-Dojo. Dive to outside through table? Check. Powerbombs on barbwire board? Check. Miyamoto taking a facefull of lighttube glass as Inematsu smashes one right in across his chest? Check. Miyamoto is really something. He bumps huge, has great looking non-deathmatch offense and does everything at top speed, even before all the hardcore stuff.

23.40pm: Dragon Gate's BxB Hulk and Shingo Takagi vs KAZMA and Taishi Taiazawa was fine, but forgettable. BxB Hulk flippery is amazing though. It's like gravity isn't trying as hard. I must get some Dragon Gate. Yoshito Sasaki and Masato Tanaka from Zero-One MAX vs. Kengo Mashimo and Madoka was next, and this is the one I was excited about. I fully expect finishers overkill, but it should be a riot (watches match). Hey, I wasn't wrong! It went: matwork, screw it, finishers. However, it didn't feel like overkill. For instance, Tanaka number one finisher was enough to win the match - in other matches, he'd hit that four or five time before it got a pinfall.

0.25am: Main event time - OMEGA vs. TAKA, Handsome JOE and Great Sasuke. Quite the notable pairing in TAKA and Sasuke. This was entertaining, but I wouldn't say actively good. OMEGA pulled out all their rudo tactics and interference on the way to victory, which was the main story. Highly entertaining show overall. I hope they're not losing TV coverage - they are such an excellent little indie.

0.51am: Still got a bit of life left, so lets work through some stuff on the hard drive. First up, a trios from Mexico's CMLL between Sagrado, El Volador Jr and La Sombra vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma, El Valiente and La Mascara. This is from 30th April of this year, and its totally great. The first two falls are just non-stop graceful lucha libre - the sort of wrestling that can only be described as beautiful. Loads of dives, loads of armdrags, loads of very happy minutes watching. The third fall slows down a little, and there's about a five minute section that is the only thing letting the match down. Great finishing section though. Mascara rolls through a pin attempt into a campana submission on Volador, Sagrada then eliminates Fantasma with a moonsault, Valiente does his amazing no-hands top rope springboard moonsault to the outside, and Sombra counters Mascara going for the same thing he did on Volador with a roll up pin.

1.40am: Last thing, I put on the episode of ECW I started in the week. CM Punk wins a shot at Kane's ECW title later in the show. Some other stuff I didn't care about. Oh, CM Punk's against Kane later in the show. It was actually pretty good, and the crowd were hot for it. I don't get what they are doing with Punk - his push seems slightly in limbo. It's a shame, because he's putting on consistently high quality performances, and in the meantime, the crowd seem to be turning on him.

Finally done: 2.05am. Sleep now. A good day.

Today is Wrestlemania day - that is to say, the show was last night, and I'll be watching it tonight. I am in the process of getting the show, through entirely legal means. Cough.

The WWE do a great job each year of making their biggest show of the year seem like a big deal, and this year is no exception. Two world title changes, the mainstream crossover appeal match in Show vs Floyd Mayweather, a seven man spotfest ladder match and the possibility that Ric Flair is wrestling his final bout all are potential talking points.

7.9% legally completed. 92.1% legally to go. This is a big file. But a legal one, no doubt.

Fuck yes. Pro Wrestling NOAH is doing a show at the Coventry Sky Dome in June. They say Morishima and Misawa and KENTA and Marafuji and Ricky Marvin and Danielson and (motherfucking) Kobashi are going to be there. I am going to mark the fuck out.

Haven't written about wrestling in a while, so I thought I'd do something about one of my all-time favourites, Shinya Hashimoto - sadly no longer with us. I sat down and watched a series of matches between him and one of his best opponents - Kazuo Yamazaki.

The main part of the feud is in the three weeks from the end of May 1996 leading up to the tag title match on 12th June. What's really great about this feud is that it's about "I kick you in the leg again and again". Ohtani/Hash vs. Yamazaki/Nagata is good - while Yamazaki and Hash are going at it, exchanging nasty strikes, Ohtani complements the intensity by striking just as hard and really backing his partner up when Yamazaki manages to get the upperhand. The lightning quick submission sets up the deadliness of Yamazaki's leg bar, which becomes important later.

The six man tag a week later steps up the hatred (which is still about "I kick your leg") with Yamazaki targetting Hash's weak knee at any and all possible times. Hash's selling is masterful here - my favourite spot is where he drops his big top rope elbow without ever putting any weight on the injured wheel.

Which brings us to the Hirata/Hash vs. Yamazaki/Iizuka IWGP tag title match. For all the talk this match has ever generated, what never gets mentioned is that this might be the best squash match of all time. Seriously, Yamazaki and Iizuka get basically nothing from about four minutes in until the finish. Hash is pissed, and beats the ever-loving hell out of Yamazaki (I kick your leg, but also I Mongolian chop your neck). Hirata and Iizuka play their supporting roles. Then the twist - Yamazaki gets his leg bar while Hash is briefly away from the action, and that's all. The story of the match is typical NJ simplicity - Hash is too good on this night, but he's also too fired up and makes a quick mistake that allows Yamazaki to sneak a win past the weaker partner. Everything else is just dressing.

A follow up singles match for the IWGP title would have capped this off as one of the best short feuds of the 90s. However, that doesn't happen until the following February. Some of the heat has gone from the rivalry, but the time gap also plays into the story of the match. Yamazaki targets the leg early, but it's not as weak as the previous summer. He has more success with the arm, which becomes the focus of the match from around the mid-point. Yamazaki dominates this match, keeping it firmly on the mat. Cool spot - Yamazaki takes Hash down with a Fujiwara armbar, and as Hash goes for the ropes, he floats over and grabs the other arm. Hash comes back with headbutts and chops to the neck, looking for the brainbuster, which, when it comes, is pretty final. This is one of the few times I have liked the 'battled through the pain in injured appendage' to get the win finish, and its all because of Yamazaki's mat dominance earlier in the match, making the the tough-it-out option the only logical option.

What I've always loved about Hash is that his size advantage never defined the dynamic of any match. The equal starting position this creates makes Yamazaki look like a total badass, going strike-for-strike with the more celebrated Hashimoto. It becomes really believable as a two well matched hard-hitters looking for the advantage, and adds to the overall intensity and the extent to which I become emotionally engaged in the match. Great feud. But then again, it's Hash.

Mostly everyone who reads this does not watch the professional wrestling, so if this is hard to understand, I apologise in advance.

Chris Benoit was a favourite wrestler of mine. Never my all-time favourite, just a guy who you knew would put on good-to-great matches every week. He made other guys looked better by being in the ring with him, and helped them reach the next level. He worked hard and always gave the impression that he would do anything for a business that he loved.

Three weekends ago, he murdered his wife and 7-year old child, before committing suicide. Some facts that have been reported. Medical reports suggest his wife, Nancy, was bound and strangled on the Friday. His son was strangled late Saturday or early Sunday. He hanged himself on a weights machine on Monday. A Bible was placed next to both his wife and son. He sent a series of odd text messages over the weekend, giving his address to several other wrestlers at shows he had cancelled his appearances over. There has since been a question over his drug use, especially steroids. There has been a further question that his son, Daniel, may have Fragile X Syndrome, a rare condition that causes mental and physical disability.

In comparison to this list, the range of media speculation in the US can not be summarised anywhere nearly so succinctly. The deaths were blamed on roid rage, an unusual suggestion given the deaths occured over a three day period. They were blamed on the parent's struggle with the son's condition. They were blamed on Benoit being frustrated in his career. Stories about divorce and domestic abuse were produced, and connected to other wrestlers' experiences (and those of their familes). They were tied to the deaths of other wrestlers and former wrestlers. The likes of Bill O'Reilly went as far as the blame Nancy for the murders, as she should have "known better" about living with such a dangerous individual and not adequately protecting her child. Most seems, with even a little examination, ludicrous, just further examples of the sort of mainstream reaction everytime professional wrestling receives unwanted spotlight.

There are a million other twists to this tragic tale that have emerged in the past three week, none of which have done anything to make the whole thing seem any less surreal to me. I have found it very hard to get my head around much of it - it doesn't make any sense to me that someone I could enjoy watching work could do this. This being the crazy world of professional wrestling, there is also a small part of me that is mournful for the lost matches, the tainted career and the fact he'll never be doing what he was good at on TV again. And because the more sensible part of me says it is ridiculous to care about this where the events are so tragic, the whole thing becomes even more confusing.

My opinion on crime has always started with the premise that a person's life shouldn't be defined by the very worst thing they did, though this is often the case. I think it is perfectly possible that people that did good in their lifetime can also, for a myriad of reasons, do something very bad indeed. I think this perfectly describes the situation with Chris Benoit. He spent twenty years risking his body to entertain wrestling fans, and in doing this, has probably entertained millions. He was also, by most accounts until this final weekend, a caring father to all his children, and a good friend and mentor to many. The consensus amongst these friend's is that the final few days of his life were without warning, and were completely out of charachter, suggesting that these were not the actions of an innately evil human being, but possible a temporarily deranged one.

I guess what I would like would be, one day, to be able to watch old matches of him and be thankful for his work and his effort, and try to seperate the two people. At the moment, that is clearly impossible, and aside from the horror that developed as I learned more about these crimes, my overriding feeling is that all that went before them is ruined forever.

Finally got around to watching Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi, the 2005 Wrestling Obsever Newsletter's match of the year and possibly the most hyped match of the past decade. Ring of Honor are the most successful of all the US indy groups, and have succeeded in attracting a number of stars from Japan to perform. Kenta Kobashi is one of the best wrestlers of all time (though if we're talking the big four from All Japan, I will always be a Kawada fan) and at present, with a career revival while his contemporaries have slowed down, is probably the biggest name is Japan. This date marks only the second match Kobashi had in America in that career, and is by far the most high profile of his matches abroad.

Samoa Joe is the top guy in Ring of Honor, and is the natural opponent for the visitor. It could be realistically argued he is the top US heavyweight worker at that moment in time, and with his size and hard-hitting style, is able to meet the older, more celebrated Kobashi on equal ground. Sensibly, the commentators remain silent throughout the match, as there is nothing they could say that the rapid crowd wasn't saying much more effectively: Kobashi's entrance hit the Reincarnated Christ level of audience approval.

This is a simple match, built as an epic heavyweight contest where both men are searching for that knockout blow. Joe starts strongest, delivering several viscious kicks and slaps, while Kobashi retaliates with chops to the chest and side of the neck. Joe has two largely dominant sections in this match - the first near the beginning where Joe lands a greater number of strikes on Kobashi, including a sickening-sounding enziguri kick to the back of Kobashi's head. The second is in the middle, where Joes uses a wider variety of moves and attacks, culminating in an STF submission hold where Kobashi battles to get to the robes, and Joe keeps finding ways of stopping him. Kobashi stops the momentum with first of two nasty looking head-drop suplexes.

At this point it becomes apparent that while Joe was leading the offence, he was not close to winning, as Kobashi comes back with an INSANE combination of probably 100 chops, leaving the rights side of Joe's chest and neck a hideous purple colour. Joe is basically done at this point, and Kobashi needs to find the final winning blow. Joe keeps trying to get back into the match with more strikes, but after one more suplex where Joe lands on his head, and a blocked lariat, Kobashi hits his own lariat for victory.

The selling is really great, with each man slowing over the course of the match, managing quick bursts of offence when necessary but not being able to maintain the pace and (crucially) demonstrating the adverse effects of this flurries. Going into the final stretch, Joe sells every strike, and bumps huge for the final lariat. The match is elevated by the crowd reaction as much as the wrestling, which while objectively is not a actual positive, makes watching twice as enjoyable. The match is not perfect by any means - Kobashi's offence is limited by his age and past injuries and sections of the middle relies on big spots too much. But it feels momentous and spectacular, and I don't finish watching it feeling the hype has excessively exceeded the actual match. Unusual, considering these are the fans that chant "This is awesome" after the first three strikes, and "match of the year" after everything else.

I have just got into using Torrents, which has enabled to keep up with the much-missed pro-wrestling that I no longer can watch in my Sky-less home. I was watching this week's episode of Smackdown, which featured a wonderful 12 minute Finlay vs. Benoit match. Dave Finlay and Chris Benoit are two guys that I absolutely know are going to deliver whenever they are matched up, which, joyfully, has happened at least five times in the past 18 months.

The first thing you notice about these matches is the manliness. There is manliness going on all over the place. The strikes are convincing, the chops are vicious, the holds have that extra edge of legitimacy. The second thing that seperates them from almost everyone else on TV is the lack of moves or spots. Each match has built around the notion of creating a true sporting contest. In this case, Finlay was targetting a weakened leg and so they hit the mat for large chunks of match, with Finlay working holds and Benoit trying to counter and fight out. Then, when the throw in a suplex or they go outside the ring, it seems a lot more meaningful and important to the story of the match. In the WWE, no-one wrestles this sort of match on a regular basis apart from these two, which is a shame, because this really is the next level up. On the indy scene, there aren't many that could be quite so confident in such simple match-building.

The match was obviously serving as a plot device for the Benoit-MVP match tonight, thus the non-finish. Conseqently, this match didn't reach the levels of last May's Judgement Day or the preceding KOTR qualifier. It's hard to feel disappointed though.