Where to Begin?
I keep harping on about how much I love to receive feedback from the people who read this column, but I only do that because it’s true. More often than not, the columns that I feel proudest of are the ones that were inspired by reader requests. When someone says that they want to read my opinion on something, I find that very flattering, and it can also inspire me to think about pro wrestling in a new way.
This week’s column comes about as a result of a couple of seperate requests that I’ve received over the past month, and a couple of the replies that I got to my Randy Couture column last week.
It seems that there are quite a few people who visit InsidePulse that are ready to expand their viewing habits beyond North American corporate wrestling, but who are not quite sure where best to begin. Here’s my advice, for what it’s worth:
Buying, Trading, and Collecting Tapes and DVDs
This is pretty much my biggest hobby these days. I’ve got a few very trustworthy and reliable traders and sellers that I do business with on a fairly regular basis. It took me a while to develop this network, and I had one or two bad experiences along the way.
If you want to avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous traders, I’d wholeheartedly recommend joining the Crazy Max wrestling boards. It’s by far the best place I know to find out about good and bad traders, and to meet people who’ve got what you want or who want what you have. Another good possibility is to make friends with other tape and DVD collectors on internet discussion boards (such as our very own InsidePulse forums) and find out where they get their stuff from.
I’ll pimp a couple of Canadian sites here: My old friend Verne at A1 Wrestling Videos is a really good source for rare and classic stuff on VHS. If you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know that Rob at Golden Boy Tapes is my guy when it comes to Japanese wrestling compilations. These two are far from the only reputable tape dealers around, and if they don’t have what you’re looking for, someone else probably will.
What to Get First?
There is a bewildering variety of pro wrestling footage available out there. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to stay a wrestling fan over so many years, and it’s probably the main reason that I love writing this column: No matter how much wrestling you’ve seen, there’s always something new to discover. That very variety, however, can be precisely what holds many people back from getting into the hobby in the first place. With so much to choose from, where should you start?
I liken it, without a trace of irony, to getting into jazz or classical music for the first time. If you go online or walk into the relevant sections of a huge record store, there are literally hundreds of composers and hundreds of musicians playing every conceivable style and variation of the music. Much of it is spine-tingling in its awesomeness, but even more of it is lame, boring, second-rate, or pretentious crap. Picking the first few recordings well can open the door to a lifetime of joy, contemplation, stimulation, and enlightenment. Choosing poorly can put you off forever, and rob you of one of life’s genuine pleasures.
There is no single jazz or classical recording that is going to appeal to absolutely everyone. Some people really don’t like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. Some can’t stand Trevor Pinnock’s sublime interpretations of the Brandenburg Concertos.
Similarly, mind-boggling though it may be, there are people walking this earth who do not love Misawa vs. Kawada ’94 and Ohtani vs. Ultimo Dragon ’96. So, don’t blame me if you don’t love the same stuff I do. Blame your parents for raising you wrongly.
At any rate, my opinion has always been that it’s best to work your way into the interesting corners of the pro wrestling universe by starting out with compilations that feature wrestlers that you already know that you like. This gives you something to hang your hat on while you’re adjusting to foreign-language commentary and new ways of telling a story on the ring. Plus, it can be fun to compare what your favourite wrestler did in, say, New Japan with what he’s doing now for WWE. The other great things about compilations is that they can introduce you to a decent variety of new wrestlers, and by so doing they can help you decide what to purchase next. Just for example: You might pick up a comp of Benoit’s matches in Japan, and you might find that you really enjoy the matches with Shinjiro Ohtani that are on that tape. So, the logical next step might be to pick up an Ohtani comp. From there, you might develop a greater appreciation of Ultimo Dragon, and that in turn might lead you to check out some of the Jindy promotion that he started: Toryumon!
In fact, let’s start out with the Benoit comp idea:
If You Dig Benoit and/or Eddie the best place to start would probably be by picking up one of the many available compilations of their work outside of the American mainstream. Whether they were wrestling as Wild Pegasus, The Pegasus Kid, Black Tiger, Chris Benoit, or Eddie Guerrero, their matches for New Japan Pro Wrestling are among the very best doorways to use when getting into Puroresu.
Both men also had impressive runs with the Lucha Libre promotion EMLL early in their careers. Eddie’s best work in Mexico, however, was for AAA. While wrestling there he formed a tag team with the legendary El Hijo del Santo, only to turn on him and align with Art Barr as La Pareja del Terror. If you have already seen the classic hair vs. hair match that’s on the Stealing Life DVD, then you will probaly understand why I think a Los Gringos Locos or Pareja del Terror comp might well be the best possible way to begin a journey into the world of Mexican Wrestling. If that, in turn, leads to checking out more of The Man in the Silver Mask, and then getting into Negro Casas and El Dandy so much the better. Yes, the butt of the joke in Bret Hart’s famous “Who are you to doubt El Dandy?” was in fact a great technician in the ring (and a jam-up guy).
If you are a Benoit fan, then it’s also really likely that you’d enjoy a Best of the Dynamite Kid DVD or three. Dyno’s influence on Benoit is really clearly evident in his Japanese matches, and of course the series he had with Tiger Mask is one of pro wrestling’s all time classics. Watching those matches in order can also be a great way to start seeing just how deep the art of in-ring storytelling can go, as the rivalry builds up from match to match and each wrestler learns to counter and reverse what the other can do.
If you dig Rey, then he is also a guy who can take you by the hand and lead you into being able to appreciate wrestling from Japan and Mexico. He and Psychosis put on a truly amazing exhibition at the WAR Super J Cup in 1995. Getting that show on tape is in some ways even better than getting a compilation tape, because the tournament features well-known wrestlers like Benoit, Jericho, and Liger, along with many names that should quickly become familiar as you get more into tape trading. If you enjoy the ’95 J-Cup, it’s a given that you’ll also be able to get into the ’94 version (which many people consider the best single wrestling event of all time) as well as the ’95 and ’96 Top/Best of the Super Juniors (both of which feature great Benoit vs. Eddie matches) and the ’96 and ’97 J-Crown tourneys.
Mysterio himself has always been a luchadore at heart, and there are some excellent comps available of his work in Mexico. If you’re a fan of Rey’s WWE stuff, then it’s fairly likely that you’ll find something to love in his matches against Psicosis and Juvi, and the classic six and eight-man tags where Rey fights alongside El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas.
If you love stiff shots, big bumps, and punishing matches that tell compelling stories, then you just might be the kind of wrestling fan that ends up loving All Japan. A Best of Vader in Japan comp that includes a match or two where he faces off against Misawa, Kawada, or Kobashi might not be a bad starting point. As an added bonus, you also might get to check out his stunningly good match with Inoki from 1996, or one of his clasic Shoot Style encounters with Nobuhiko Takada from the mid-1980s.
A Stan Hansen comp which includes matches against Jumbo and Misawa might also work for you, particularly if you enjoy watching JBL in the ring. Hansen might not be as funny as JBL, but he hits harder, sells better, bumps more, and is approximately a thousand times more intense when he throws his version of the Clothesline. His 1993 match vs. Kobashi is an all-time classic, and well worth seeking out.
Speaking of 1993, if you’re ready to jump in at the deep end, there’s a Best of All Japan ’93 single-disc comp that’s not too hard to find. Every match on there is hard-fought, well-paced, and stiff as hell.
Mitsuharu Misawa: Path to the Five Crown King would also make a great second step on this particular journey. It gives a good overview of how Misawa became the top wrestler of his generation, and it gives you a ton of good matches without taking you into the all-time classics before you’re ready to see them.
If you dig Mixed Martial Arts then I am right with you. Over 75% of the feedback I got from last week’s column was on the positive side, so it looks like I’ll keep throwing in MMA tidbits until my editors yell at me to stop. If you are interested in exploring outsdie of the UFC mainstream, I can honestly think of no better starting point than Maik Naimark’s DVDVR Shoot Comps.
Good Luck Out There!
These are just a very few suggestions for where you might begin to explore the world of great wrestling that exists outside of what you can get for free on your TV. Even if you were to go out and pick up every tape or DVD that I’ve mentioned in this article, you’ll barely have begun to scatch the surface of what is out there. We haven’t even started to discuss US Indies, Death Match style, or Joshi Puroresu, for example. I sincerely hope that at least a couple of people will be enticed into the world of tape trading after reading this, and I hope to hear from you about what you discover. If you’re futher along in your viewing habits, as I know many of you are, then please help spread the love around.
Thnaks for reading!
