Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Last few minutes. Austin isn't wearing kneepads for some reason, which is surprising considering that he takes some big bumps. Vader attacks Duggan from behind after Race takes a bump on the concrete. Duggan makes his own save and clears both Austin and Vader out of the way with his board. Sting is out to even the sides, but Duggan already had it under control.
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Such a weird mish-mash of wrestlers. It's also funny that they seem to have mastered cheating behind the referee's back, so maybe they were right to point out that they didn't need Cornette. Jim Ross was outstanding on commentary. I'm sure it was tough making ends meet in this job, but he was probably happy to be calling a style of wrestling he personally liked. Candido hits Lee with a trash can behind the referee's back, which gives the match to the Gangstas. Cactus comes out and waits for Candido to come out as we cut to commercial.
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I really think a lot of those changes are the result of increased marketing. If a wrestler has a t-shirt that has their finisher on it, or there are video games or posters where they're doing it, they probably consider it part of the wrestler's personal brand and feel the need to have them to do it every match. I think I've said before that the idea of every wrestler having to have a finisher has always felt too comic book-like for my tastes. I prefer wrestlers who have 3-4 signature spots that are over and can end a match. The inside cradle is a great move we don't see enough of anymore. I personally like flash pins, especially in really competitive matches where the idea is to put someone over, but not so decisively that you've closed the door to rematches. The more things a wrestler can do that people buy as a finish, the better, as wrestling where the audience only pops for entrance music and finisher attempts always makes me sad.
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What he is referring to is that during this time, a lot of bootleggers had "Best Singles Match Ever" as the tagline for the 6/3/94 commercial release, and "Best Tag Team Match Ever" for the 6/9/95 commercial release. Are those personal notes that people just ended up copying and pasting from whomever they got the tape, or did All Japan actually release those commercial videos with those names?
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Jim Cornette makes an offer to the Gangstas to be their manager. He actually makes a really strong case. New Jack wants none of it. "I got a college education and a criminal record, so I know how to make decisions." The Gangstas tell him they are black owned and black operated. Next, Chris and Tammy are out with Boo Bradley. Tammy accuses Cactus of animal cruelty in order to rile up Boo. Finally, Cactus Jack is out. Cactus reiterates that he's here to save Boo Bradley's soul. He gets in an inside joke, saying that he gets to enjoy the missionary position. He says Candido couldn't carry his bag years ago, can't carry his jock now, and even if he could, he probably wouldn't enjoy it. Classic Cactus.
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Backlund gloats about being the WWF champion. Good find, considering there weren't going to be very many of these. This is funny, as they seem to have decided to take some of his mistakes that they would normally cast as outtakes and edited them into a promo to make him seem batshit insane. Love it! Next up is Diesel with incredibly thick eyebrows saying he's about to challenge for the title. Diesel points out that no one buys Ford Fairmonts like they did in 1978. This is rambling and he oddly goes into this xenophobic promo about American manufacturing and you'd think he was cutting a promo on an evil foreigner. O....kay then. Finally, Henry Godwinn is about to be in hog heaven.
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Another great match between these teams. It's probably below all of them except 1/95, but that's some pretty steep competition. What is gained from the early footage is a few Misawa/Kawada exchanges. At one point, Misawa is teasing a tope outside but thinks better of it when Kawada just stands there and looks at him. Of course, the finish is once again about Kawada trying to get that win over Misawa and not quite pulling it off, with Kobashi saving in the last second of the match. Misawa and Kawada do the Tenryu spot where Kawada grabs the arm, chops Misawa, and Misawa takes a flat back bump for every chop as they go in a circle, but after all these matches, I have no idea what that is called. Still, they do it 11 times, which is pretty impressive. I'm glad to have now seen all of the matches between these teams that are available.
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Last few minutes. Chuck Norris stands at ringside and faces off with the heels trying to run in on Yokozuna's behalf. IRS comes in the ring from behind and attacks Undertaker. Jeff Jarrett finally takes a bump for Chuck just before Undertaker wins the match, breaking the Japanese flag and throws in the casket with Yoko, as Vince points out that we have seen the last of Yokozuna.
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This remains probably my favorite WWF angle ever. The match is good for Bret and Backlund keeping the heat without being able to work any real false finishes or nearfalls. But the angle is amazing. Everyone has seen it, so I will just comment on my favorite single moment in this, which is when Howard Finkel announces Bret as the NEW WWF champ, and Bret turns around and has this awesome dejected look on his face. The post-match promos are gold too.
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Of course. And I do agree with what you said. I realize it seems like I was responding to you re-reading the thread.
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Agreed with John. I've found too often that with topics I see started, there seems to be an end goal of building a consensus, or coming to a definitive answer. We don't have to do that, and I actually prefer that we don't. Over time, if something does get answered definitively, that opinion becomes so enshrined that people forget why they even have it, and it becomes a sacred cow. Flair is the perfect example. I don't disagree that he's the best wrestler ever, but most people who think that are just thinking that because they've always thought that -- the end. It's why I prefer topics that don't aim to pin down a specific answer to a question. Not being able to agree on the answer doesn't make the conversation pointless. In fact, it makes it even more worth having. As for minds not changing at the end of a debate, that's just not true. I've seen it happen multiple times. It's happened to me. I'm sure it's happened to others. The key is that people are willing to hear other people out when they're making a good case.
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I thought this was a lot of fun, but I agree that it wasn't a classic. What it was was a really tremendous comedy match from another promotion helping fill out a long show. The arm wringer stuff with Delphin and Naniwa was hilarious. If you don't go into this match with expectations of seeing something at their normal level, I think you'll enjoy this. Expect really well done comedy spots for 20+ minutes, mixed in with a few flashes of good aerial wrestling.
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This wasn't as good as Toyota/Kong, but I still enjoyed it for similar reasons, namely that they understood their audience and worked a different style of match than they may normally work to accommodate them. I'm used to seeing Kyoko work these sprints, but not really Kansai, so it's cool to see her do something different. I love Kansai's resourcefulness. At one point, while Kyoko is in a standing position while she is lying on the mat, she manages to trip her, kick her in the face and then throw some forearms. I don't see them holding back because of the longer format of the show -- if anything, I see them going more all out because of the shorter match times.
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That God awful Shane McMahon match - which is the one match I can think of that comes closest to embodying everything I hate about wrestling - getting so much love was probably part of it. But I'm not sure Angle was this great hand in 2000-2001, as much as he was a guy who had a lot of potential.
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This is not the best match I've seen these two have, but I really have to give them credit for knowing their audience and working a match that would play well in a Dome setting. Things like Toyota's table dive and Kong's running shoulderblock on the ramp are not spots I usually care for all that much, but they fit here, and Toyota and Kong are out to wrestle big. Usually, Kong/Toyota has Toyota keeping the pace up with Kong trying to slow it down, and that's part of the match's story. In this case, they're both working a quick pace and dropping bombs. Great match in a different way from their other matches. In some ways, I'd even call this the type of "touring" match that guys like Rey and Psicosis would perfect around this time, even though in this case, Kong and Toyota were working their home promotion. This is one where they just gave their audience exactly what they wanted. On a side note, Toyota is still not my favorite Joshi wrestler, but I understand her more than I did in 1996. I'm looking forward to giving all of her Big Red title defenses in '96 another look with a fresh set of eyes.
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For me, his act felt too over the top much of the time. Remember the Randy Orton match where he was supposed to be selling the after-effects of a concussion and the audience just laughed at him? Remember the non-sanctioned Jericho match at Unforgiven where he kept breaking out in tears while avenging Jericho's punch of his wife? Also, "I'm sorry, I love you." It even continued during his referee job in Undertaker/HHH this year, when he was sitting in the corner making really bizarre facial expressions for no real reason. My biggest problem with Shawn is that he was too melodramatic, to a point where it seemed laughable and phony, and I'm a guy who loves my wrestling melodrama. But I like the melodrama to be grounded in the wrestling itself, and not conversations (the Angle trash talking at WM leading to the superkick is another moment that falls into that category). Add to that his tendency to work overly light (aside from the kick, what else did Shawn do that seemed painful?) and there you go.
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Wrestling is at its best very simple, straightforward and easy to understand. One of the biggest problems with wrestling now is how overthought it is. There is nothing wrong with formula. Formulas exist because they work. The key to comparing wrestlers is that not all of them execute the formula equally well. Originality is a very overrated concept in working a wrestling match, yet there is always a desire to reinvent the wheel. Really? How? I'm not sure they suit each other well at all. Regal and Finlay are all about attention to detail and precision. Shawn is all about melodrama and facial expressions. Not sure how they get matched up. I also find it interesting that Shawn's big matches the last few years are much more overwrought and laid on thick than any Patterson special I can recall. "I'm sorry. I love you." Really?