New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 3 Workrate Report

Looks like this will be another one match show, which makes sense if you're going to clip up a match to fit in two, like they did last week.

1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (4/7/13)

So according to my DVR programming description, this match was the Observer MOTY for 2013. And, it was good. I'm not sure I would have guessed that it won Match of the Year honors, no matter how much Mauro screamed that it was a masterpiece and like the best combination of Steamboat/Flair and Austin/Rock. But it was good. I liked that Tanahashi established the arm work early, which is a smart thing to do to a guy who kept saying he wanted to win with the Rainmaker (even though we all knew that he was clearly going to hit the Rainmaker and use the arm when it was convenient). Still Tanahashi's arm work looked real good. I dug the wrenched in arm bars and really love one point where he started hammering down on the arm while then uppercutting it on the upstroke. Okada did a fine visual representation of selling it, making sure to hold it and touch it after doing a move. But it never made him hesitate when doing those moves. Still hit his elbow drop, still hit a couple Rainmakers, still threw a couple suplexes, still did his STF submission a couple times. He would always hold his arm afterwards, but at that point he was merely paying lip service. I get working through the pain on a couple moves, but going to the effort to sell the whole time while still doing almost all the moves exactly the same way seems like a lot of pointless work to me. It hurt in between moves, but obviously didn't hurt enough to make him consider not doing any of these moves. Maybe it was supposed to show how determined he was to win the title? The problem is that wrestlers aren't good enough actors to show determination. They just kind of growl. But they always growl, so it's hard to convey different emotional levels of growling. But even with that I still enjoyed it. I liked Tanahashi playing the shades of grey. He knew a lot of people in the crowd wanted Okada to win, but he also knew tons of people wanted him to win. Some of the crowd booed some of his actions, but it was all in the name of defending his title and nothing was flat out heelish, more just showing that he knew the threat he was up against. So we had some good near falls, good reversals that actually felt organic and not overly choreographed. Overall a fun match.

Now some things I really didn't like:

Mauro really has to tone things way the fuck down. This show and last he kicks into overdrive scream mode and it's already laughably bad, but for the people that enjoy it I imagine it's going to ring hollow in a couple episodes when he's acting like every single match is the greatest moment in the history of this sport. The excessively grand screaming about "WHAT IS IN THEIR DNA THAT MAKES THIS POSSIBLE!?" is kind of amusing unless you realize he's dead serious.

Okada really needs to practice putting on certain submissions. He stumbled a couple of times trying to lock on things, including one of the more business exposing things I've ever seen. He was attempting to lock some sort of float over butterfly submission to put pressure on Tanahashi's neck (after Tanahashi took a nasty spike DDT on the apron), and Okada kept botching the float over. So Tanahashi literally just had to sit still on the mat while Okada tried over and over and over and over again to properly apply this move. I've never seen anything like this before. The crowd started laughing at one point. Okada started laughing at one point. Imagine Flair trying to lock on the Figure 4 but continually tripping over Steamboat's leg, then just trying again and again, while Steamboat just idly sits there waiting to be put in the move. So awful. Again, I've never seen anything like this before. If John Cena fell over 5 times in a row while trying to put on the STFU, I imagine people would be citing that moment years later as a reason why he is horrible. I can specifically see Meltzer citing this and using his "first day of wrestling school bad" line. Yet Okada gets to skate.

And finally, that fucking ref is the worst. Had to look his name up, "Red Shoes" UnnoWhat could have been a real dramatic moment of the match involving crawling to the ropes to break a submission, was completely shit on by this hack making muggy cross-eyed Milton Berle faces. He does more of that ear cupping, leaning his face alllll the way into the faces of both men, really making it all about him at one point by standing up mid submission and doing a fucking Hulk Hogan finger point to the timekeeper as if to say "GET THAT BELL READY MOTHERFUCKER! THIS MATCH IS ENDING SOON!!" At one point he clearly blocks both of their faces from the camera zoom with his own face, really making sure the ringside camera was getting his face in there, really doing his job out there. This guy puts to shame any instance of Shawn Michaels as a guest ref. Seriously cannot stand this guy.

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MLJ: Mocho Cota in 1993 III: Villano III/Solar/Latin Lover v. Jerry Estrada/Mocho Cota/El Cobarde II

Taped 8-6-93
Villano III/Solar/Latin Lover v. Jerry Estrada/Mocho Cota/El Cobarde II

I'll be honest. The plan was to watch Monday's match and then Wednesday's match and then follow it up with the Satanico vs Lizmark title match. In watching those, though, Cota vs. Lover really stole the show and since we don't have an apuestas match between them (I think it never happened for one reason or another; he might have left), I figured I'd finish off the week by going back to the other match we do have in 1993.

This hadn't been as appealing to me on paper, though. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because I have no idea who Cobarde II is. Cobarde means coward which is a pretty fun gimmick actually. Cobarde I died in 83 at age 35. I'm guessing this was his brother. He had a good physical presence but I didn't really get a great look at him here. This was lacking Satanico though, and didn't have the pull of Eddy. It was still enjoyable for what it was, even if there was a certain level of mastery missing from it.

Estrada was fairly amusing. He took one Hamrick bump (as opposed to an Estrada bump which he didn't take) and most of his offense consisted of moving out of the way so that his opponent landed on his face. That happened a lot actually. Solar, on the other hand, had this really great quebradora (which, up there with Ingobernables, is one of the two words I always leave a letter off of and I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad one that no one ever calls me on it.), where he brought the guy up onto his shoulder and turned with. No one in CMLL does it now regularly, from what I've seen and that's a shame. Of course, he did it and did it and did it here, so it got a little old too. Villano III was just past 40 here but I've seen better outings from him, before and after this. As a guy to help hold up a match, he was fine though.

We didn't get full entrances here, but the valets were still there, with Estrada's looking about as trashy as possible for this point in human history. Cota had a crazy technicolor robe. Lover never had any girls with him which seems to be against the gimmick unless the idea is that they didn't want the women in the crowd to get jealous. This was yet another match where the rudos rushed to take the advantage right at the beginning, after everyone was announced. I'm not sure if that is better or worse than the ambush on the ramp we see all the time now.

The pairings were Estrada vs Villano, Cobarde vs Solar, and Lover vs Cota. There was a fun early moment where they held Lover so that Cota could slap his chest a few times like Tarzan and chop him. This is my last Cota match for a while so I'm going to be liberal with the gifs.

There was also a good amount of the heel ref stopping the tecnicos from running in and saving which is still something I find offputting since I almost never feel like the tecnicos being unable to make the save needs to be explained in any other lucha I watch. It's one of those things that SHOULD be a problem on paper but through the traditions and norms that they work in, usually always works out very organically as they switch up the beatdown as guys leave the ring. Most trios matches I've seen don't work a Face-In-Peril style of heat segment but instead an equal opportunity ebb and flow style. I don't think this is any more successful than that, especially since, after a while, Lover just rolled out of the ring anyway.

Eventually, the tecnicos mounted a comeback after Estarda lacklusterly hit Cobarde by accident. Solar posted Estrada on the outside. Lover hit a big suplex on Cota and then tossed him by his hair. Then he punched him through the ropes, which again was gif worthy.

They cycled through some pairings after this, with Estrada (looking like a poor man's Marty Jannetty) going against Solar. It was pretty clunky but at least full of character. Next came Villano and Cota and this was actually really good, with some good chain shtick. Cota even went up for a leap into a power bomb which led to Lover flying in to pick up a pin and then another awesome but completely extraneous quebradora by Solar after the other two had been pinned.

Between falls Lover poked Cota in the chest causing Cota to cower, only to do a taunt when Lover turned around and then put his hands behind his back afterwards. Then he hid behind the ref, ran off, and taunted again. It deserves two gifs.

The segunda had its fun moments admidst the clunkiness. There was a weird exchanged between Estrada and Villano where they just ducked each other's moves or put their head down to get hit over and over again. That ended with the Hamrick bump and a dive tease. The did a good job keeping Lover from beating on Cota too much. He had one opportunity after knock him out with a kick but Estrada came in from behind to hold him on the floor. Cota also did a really nice cheaty dropkick using the ropes while on the apron when Solar's head was held in the corner. Cobarde's big moment was getting shrugged off on a monkey flip attempt by Solar and then letting him catapult him through the second rope before eating a tope. Eventually all of it sort of oozed into a finish with more missed moves between Villano and Estrada before Villano locked on an Octopus for the win. Post match, Lover kept grabbing Cota's beard in order to tease hitting him.

Fun match but definitely not smooth and not up to the level of the two that would follow it.  I think these three matches actually go much further in helping the case for Cota than hurting it though.

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