Loss
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Dirty White Boy has a mystery opponent from California coming in. Next, we have a strategy session with the Rock & Roll Express and Cornette. Things are tense, as you'd expect. Big argument. Ross and Cornette still have the great chemistry they had a few years prior. Cornette vows once again not to turn on them, but Ross says he's bringing them out next week to try to talk them out of this whole arrangement with Cornette. Love the classic rock quotes. Next up, Chris and Tammy want to prove that they don't treat Boo Bradley. They prove this by showing him comfortably living in a boiler room. Tammy takes the cat away from him. I don't think they made their point very well. Cactus says there will be no more poems, jokes or soliloquies. Cactus is great and is more serious. I like him in SMW. "Year after year, I'm starting to realize I'm not gonna get my two front teeth." Finally, The Gangstas are out. New Jack was always good at saying controversial stuff with conviction, but now he's gotten really good at hyping matches. -
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Good to see Dundee back here. I wish he had been allowed to just be Bill Dundee in WCW. Having friends in Memphis, I'm amused that they use Scott Bowden living in Germantown to get heat. Doug Gilbert and Scott Bowden interrupt him after a couple of minutes. The predictable happens, as they get into a brawl. Eddie Marlin and Randy Hales are out to quickly break things up.
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Just the finish of the first match, which sees Kong and Bennett put away Kyoko and Hasegawa. I really liked the second match a lot more than I expected for something different. Reggie Bennett is not as capable as the other three, but she works hard and is a willing bumper. She reminds me of Sasaki in some ways in how she is willing to try her best to keep up with people who are clearly better than her, which is fun to watch. Toyota puts on a great performance, both in selling and offense. Her selling of Aja's holds is really tremendous. I also thought her and Takako complemented each other well as a team and that seems like a lost team in some ways. Great finishing spot, with Toyota basically doing a rollup from the top rope to catch Aja in a pin. The music that plays and her subsequent celebration makes it seems like her name was just called on The Price Is Right, which cracked me up. The last match was a good sprint and I also liked it, but it didn't really tread any new ground. I think when these four are involved, I prefer the traditional lineup of teams, even if I do like Toyota and Takako as a team, and even though they did a good job still emphasizing the Toyota/Kyoko rivalry.
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I didn't think this was a GREAT match, but I did enjoy it. It seemed at least as good as the Baba/Hansen match against Misawa/Kobashi earlier in the year. Kawada's interactions with both Hansen and Baba I think were as good as what Kobashi did what both guys in the March match, and possibly better. The Kawada/Hansen stuff near the finish is my favorite part of this, as Taue has a victory over Hansen to his name (context be damned), but Kawada doesn't. At one point, he actually pulls Kawada on top of Hansen to try to help him get the job done and he still can't do it. A little sad to see Kawada lose a big match while holding the Triple Crown, and that's even more sad when you consider that he didn't have a single successful title defense (I guess the Kobashi draw was "successful", but you know what I mean) while champion. But I did think this was a good, solid match.
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Not to mention that a promotion didn't really need to have well-produced TV to be successful, and that they saw no value in archiving footage.
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I like the bootleg that we dug up better than this, but not by much. This is by far the best I've ever seen Johnny Ace look. He's not Misawa or Kobashi (or even Doc), but he tries hard and for one night looks like a peer. I love the dueling moonsaults with him and Ace. That kickout from Ace felt like there was no way he was going to go down like that after Kobashi just kicked out of his own moonsault. but even more than Ace's performance, Misawa and Kobashi really look like the best tag team in the world here because of how in tune they are with each other. On more than one occasion, they give offensive moves to Doc and Kobashi in stereo, and Kobashi instinctively blocks Doc from interfering when he sees Misawa going for the Tiger Driver. For working coherently as a team, this is one of their better performances.
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It depends on the context. I think it's a fairly lousy way to end a feud, but I like it if there are going to be rematches and they are selling the idea that the winner got lucky.
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Yes, this is an 8-man tag. Universo is the fourth man on the Caras team, and Lizmark is the fourth man on the Perro team. Pretty typical AAA main event from this time period. Crazy final fall. Parka's dancing totally confusing the Dinamitas is awesome, and then he takes a scary bump to the floor. Parka is the star of this for me, between his comedy, bumping, selling and offense, but everyone does their part just fine. The Dinamitas (and Estrada) are so cruel!
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First, to start the show, Eric Bischoff announces that Randy Savage is in the building and will be on the show! Heenan is skeptical, and Savage's voice makes a cameo, yet he's nowhere to be seen. Whaa? Next, Hogan and Jimmy Hart talk in front of a green screen. Hogan and WCW are the only things happening in wrestling today. Starrcade '94 will be the most important day in the history of wrestling. Hogan tells a drug-induced story of hanging out in his garage and seeing things on the pipe of Beefcake's motorcycle. Next up, Savage appears in front of the live crowd. This is the first Savage appearance in WCW! He gets the hero's welcome from the Center Stage crowd. He says he's around for only one reason, and that's to confront Hulk Hogan. I watch this and think they could have drawn big with Savage coming in as a heel and turning on Hogan at Starrcade. The two of them as a babyface tag team feels like wasted time. Here, he says he's either going to shake Hogan's hand or slap him in the face.
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Nice match. Agreed that it's nice to see Cactus in a more normal wrestling match. This feels on par with some of his best WCW B-show stuff - a little wild, but mostly just good, intense wrestling. Candido looks excellent here, mixing highspots, wrestling and brawling. Cactus gets the win, but Tammy sprays him in the eyes with hairspray right after. They want Boo to jump on Cactus from the top rope - to the point that Tammy is threatening to hurt Boots the Cat - but Brian Lee makes the save.
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First, Cornette has asked for time to talk to the Rock & Roll Express. He points out that the Rock & Rolls only have one more shot to win the tag titles, coming up at Christmas Chaos. He tells them they have to make this shot count. He points out that the Gangstas have come closer than anyone to running the Rock & Rolls out of SMW. He makes an offer - he can help the Rock & Rolls win the tag titles at Christmas Chaos by managing them, and he can guarantee them they'll win the tag titles. His motivation is that he wants the Bodies to get credit for running the Rock & Rolls out of the territory, not the Gangstas. The Rock & Rolls deliberate and take him up on his offer, but tell him that if he turns on them, they will leave him for dead. Great segment. Next up is an interview with Cactus & Brian Lee. Cactus does a hilarious poem explaining all the horrible things he is going to do to Candido. Finally, the Gangstas reiterate that they will not give the Rock & Rolls another title shot after Christmas Chaos. He confirms that there is no deal with Cornette.
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They don't like white people in Puerto Rico, according to PG-13. And thus begins the ascent up the card in Memphis of PG-13, as this is really their first main event program. This studio match seems to be JIP at the second fall. We get a good 7 minutes of action, but I'd like to see this in full sometime, as what is here is good.
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Something to see is the best way to describe this. Quite the spectacle, but this is ridiculous. Pogo uses a flaming baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, and there are explosions all around the ring. I hate the scythe Pogo uses. It's too barbaric. This is where I clarify the point for those who like to say how surprised they are that I like FMW. I don't like this. I like the wrestling side of FMW. We've seen precious little of that in 1994.
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November: #1 - Eddy Guerrero & Art Barr vs El Hijo del Santo & Octagon (AAA When Worlds Collide 11/06/94) ****3/4 #2 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Juventud Guerrera (AAA 11/30/94) ****1/2 #3 - Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong (AJW Big Egg Universe 11/20/94) ****1/4 #4 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 11/25/94) **** #5 - Vader vs Dustin Rhodes (WCW Clash of the Champions XXIX 11/16/94) ***3/4 #6 - Eddie Gilbert vs Tracy Smothers (NWA World Title Tournament 11/19/94) ***3/4 #7 - Chris Candido vs Tracy Smothers (NWA World Title Tournament 11/19/94) ***1/2 #8 - Dynamite Kansai vs Kyoko Inoue (AJW Big Egg Universe 11/20/94) ***1/2 #9 - Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansai (AJW Big Egg Universe 11/20/94) ***1/2 #10 - Masahito Kakihara vs Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFI 11/30/94) ***1/2 #11 - Al Snow vs Chris Candido (NWA World Title Tournament 11/19/94) ***1/4 #12 - Great Sasuke, Sato & Shiryu vs Super Delphin, Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa (AJW Big Egg Universe 11/20/94) ***1/4 #13 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Kitahara (WAR 11/29/94) ***1/4 #14 - Nobuhiko Takada vs Gary Albright (UWFI 11/30/94) *** #15 - Yumiko Hotta vs Combat Toyoda (AJW Big Egg Universe 11/20/94) #16 - Bret Hart vs Bob Backlund (WWF Survivor Series 11/23/94) #17 - Rock & Roll Express vs The Gangstas (SMW Thanksgiving Thunder 11/26/94) #18 - Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart (WWF Monday Night RAW 11/07/94) #19 - The Gangstas vs Brian Lee & Lance Storm (SMW TV 11/26/94) #20 - Diesel vs Bob Backlund (WWF MSG 11/26/94)
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If I remember right, this is the Rey/Juventud match after they watched a boatload of tapes from all the Japanese promotions. But I don't see too much aping. There are occasional things, like the superplex and powerbomb, but they could have picked that up anywhere. Most of this is typical lucha stuff, although it is well done and on the higher end. I don't think I'm quite on board with Dave, who called this a ***** match. But when I look at most of the wrestling surrounding it, it stands out in a way where I don't think Dave is insane for rating it that highly. This is my personal favorite match that I've seen between these two. Because it has more time to develop, and because they get the chance to show that they are just as good on the mat as they are in the air, and because this finish isn't overbooked to death, for me, it was more memorable than anything else I have seen them do in WCW, WWE, ECW, WAR or AAA. Yes, Fuerza is running in at the end to low blow Rey behind the ref's back, but it doesn't take this down too much, and it does set up rematches. What they did well (just about everything) overcame what they didn't do well (give us a satisfying final two minutes).
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What I liked so much about the last Takada/Albright match was how I didn't realize how good it was until it was over and I realized what I just saw. I appreciated how they built this match that felt so special and big while working extremely simple stuff. This is much different. It doesn't feel as big, but the details are better. Still, Takada can get stoic, and Albright isn't a great mat wrestler, so I like this series more when it plays up the showmanship than I do the technique. This was too big on details, and details aren't where this matchup shines. This is a good match, but I didn't have the same investment in it because it wasn't laid out as well.
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Kakihara goes after Yamazaki with a vengeance, catching him with rapid fire palm strikes to immediately take him off of his feet. Yamazaki ups the aggression in response to this. There is a really cool moment where Yamazaki is standing and Kakihara is completely on his back and Yamazaki is approaching him like he's a caged animal and can't seem to get in a strike. Yamazaki takes on the role of the wily vet here. Kakihara has the blind enthusiasm and keeps going for the kill while Yamazaki just casually lets him beat himself and steps in only when he has to. Kakihara is UWFI's Otani in how he performs in this.
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They really get the balance of the match just right, as Kitahara comes after Tenryu with big flurries of offense, then Tenryu cuts him off by slowing down the pace. Tenryu doesn't need to hit Kitahara as many times as Kitahara needs to hit him to have the same impact. Tenryu does a great sell of Kitahara's high kick in the corner, bouncing from the apron back inside the ring. Good, basic match that gets over the key points really well, and I liked how Kitahara came out of this looking good even in losing.