Newsletter The Last All Japan Match of 1982 The finals of the annual Real World Tag League holds a special place in the All Japan calendar. Not only is it the culmination of All Japan’s last tournament of the year, it is also oftentimes positioned as the very last match of All Japan’s calendar year as
Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Can you *really* trace the influence of the 1981 Alley Fight to the modern WWE main event style?
Newsletter Pat Patterson Gives Sgt. Slaughter Everything He Deserves Quick Programming Note: Hope y’all had a happy holiday! It wound out being more complicated than planned in my neck of the woods for a couple of reasons, which is why you’re getting this essay on Monday night instead of Friday. Thanks for your patience! If you’re
Newsletter Joseph Montecillo 2022 MOTYC Rewatch Part II (April and May) WrestleMania, Anarchy in the Arena, and an ACTION dream match!
Newsletter Sgt. Slaughter vs. Pat Patterson Don't Need a Referee Without the pretense of competition, Slaughter and Patterson deliver on a goddamn fight.
Newsletter Joseph Montecillo's 2022 MOTYC Rewatch Part I (January to March) From Bryan vs. Hangman to Mox vs. Biff, take a look back at the best matches of the first quarter of the year!
Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Big Van Vader (Bull Power) vs. Otto Wanz This week on BIG EGG, we had a prime example of what the kids are calling “big meaty men slapping meat.” CWA Champion Bull Power puts his title on the line against Otto Wanz, a man who is surely too old to present much of a challenge to the terror
Newsletter Bull Power vs. Otto Wanz is Better than Sports Is pro wrestling sport or entertainment? With Vader and Otto Wanz, it's better than both.
Newsletter Big Van Vader and Otto Wanz Practiced Consequential Violence Generally speaking, I don’t like wrestling matches that are supposed to be good. I don’t mean this in terms of a match’s reputation, but in its intent. Take the current best of seven series for the AEW Trios Championships – there are other stories being told within its
Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto Hello! Yesterday, BIG EGG hit 500 subscribers. On behalf of Joseph and myself, we’d like to say thank you. When Fanfyte closed earlier this year, I knew that I wanted to continue working with Joseph in some fashion, and BIG EGG was it. It’s been a lot of
Newsletter Retirement Matches Should Suck a Little I’m being fatuous, obviously, but think of the narrative inherent to the retirement match. One party is at the end of their physical capacity to wrestle, the other stands to benefit from sending a legend packing. Neither person wants to lose, so they pull out every weapon in their
Newsletter Aja Kong Overshadows Akira Hokuto in the Big Egg In what was meant to be the last match of her career, Akira Hokuto fades into the background against the shining star of Aja Kong.
Newsletter Joseph Montecillo's Best of the Month (November 2022) Full Gear, CMLL trios, an Open the Brave Gate title match, and more! Read about Joseph's favorites from November 2022!
Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Art Barr & Eddy Guerrero vs. Santito & Octagon The famous double hair/double mask match from AAA’s When Worlds Collide PPV was the subject of discussion this week, prompting Joseph to write on how its legacy has endured for nearly 30 years, and Colette to do some thinking on the “anything for heat” heel. Before digging into
Newsletter Los Gringos Locos, or: doing anything to get heat Last month, I rewatched Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil, which was new to the Criterion Channel, for the first time since high school. When I was 16, I was deeply into cynical sci-fi dystopia, and Brazil, due to its being British and coming pre-packaged with the story of how
Newsletter How the Legend of the When Worlds Collide Apuesta Endures The double hair vs. double mask match from 1994 is placed on a pedastal even though it never hits the peaks of the style.
Paid-members only Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Billy Robinson vs. Antonio Inoki And Nick Bockwinkel. You can't discuss Antonio Inoki and Billy Robinson without discussing Nick Bockwinkel. Or Jumbo Tsuruta, for that matter!
Newsletter Billy Robinson Escaping an Antonio Inoki Headscissors and Going 60 Seven minutes of this hour are perfection...
Newsletter Antonio Inoki and Billy Robinson Can Do It All Night There is nothing special about wrestling for an hour. I say this knowing that there’s a certain kind of fetishism for the days of one-hour broadways and the dudes who did them, a cult of fans who bemoan the way wrestling has deemphasized the epic, real sports pace of
Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson Welcome to the end of week three of BIG EGG, in which Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe put on an absolute clinic for the ROH World Championship. Here’s the match: And here are this week’s essays, should you need to catch up! Joseph: Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson
Newsletter Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson Approaches Pro Wrestling Perfection For two years, the Ring of Honor roster worked to solve Samoa Joe. I imagine that most anybody reading this has at least heard of the reputation of Samoa Joe’s ROH World Championship run. As of this writing, it remains the longest reign in the title’s history. It
Newsletter Joseph and Colette Discuss Perro Aguayo vs. Sangre Chicana Welcome to the end of week two of BIG EGG. This week, we watched one of Joseph’s favorite lucha libre matches, and something wholly new to Colette, the 1986 hair match between Perro Aguayo and Sangre Chicana. Here’s the match, if you’ve yet to watch it: If
Newsletter Sangre Chicana and Perro Aguayo Paint with Broad Strokes This was always my favorite of the 80s lucha classics. Popular consensus props up the MS-1/Sangre Chicana apuesta from 1983 as the best of the era, but I’ve always thought that this hair match from 1986 had a certain charm that the former did not. I won’t
Newsletter Sangre Chicana vs. Perro Aguayo is a pro wrestling miracle Something about this match didn’t register for me. I am disappointed, but unsurprised. In looking at the schedule for BIG EGG, and in having had the pleasure of editing Joseph’s work and watching his YouTube videos, I entered into this project knowing that I had a lot of
