Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Rap is in, rock & roll is out. -
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Flair worked the mic all the way through commercial to build heat for the match. Hogan dominating Flair while hobbling around on one knee for the first half of this is just completely wrong. This is even less a Flair match than BATB, which is a weird statement to make about a match focused around destroying Hogan's injured knee. This is Hogan vs Heel Opponent, and Flair just happens to be the guy on the other side. Hogan tries to do this big selling performance which is technically fine, but he's too dominant to be sympathetic, and there's this overbearing phoniness to all of this that shines through. The finish makes Flair look stupid, as he apparently doesn't understand the rules of wrestling and thinks that titles change hands on a countout. Sherri's outfit is very proto Lady Gaga, though.
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The WWF obviously had WCW more on their radar after the MNW started, but they followed them before that. They loved to run house shows in the same market the night before big shows and keep everyone up late so the crowds would be tired the next day. After the bleeding at I believe Spring Stampede '94, Vince wrote a pretty nasty letter to WCW about it.
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Shawn Michaels started in Mid South and would likely be interviewed. There's your hook. "The greatest performer of our time got his start in Mid South." Steve Austin also grew up watching Houston Wrestling and would likely have a lot to say about it.
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What are some of the best Espectrito matches? I know about THE AAA match in '94 against Mascarita Sagrada, and there have been some other things I have liked, but what else would you recommend?
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Fair point. While the whole purpose of this project is to contextualize, of course there is some cherry picking at work. So I'll just ask these questions: (1) Was there a Hotta match between 1/94 and here where she tried to get revenge on Kong for her hand injury? That was awfully over the top to be ignored after that match. (2) What was the storyline reason for Hokuto and Kandori teaming at Queendom, other than "So they could work a great match built around their conflict"? Who made that match anyway? Why were their opponents Bull and Aja? (3) How did we go from Kong crying in the crowd during Kandori II, to their match against each other, to Queendom, to teaming here, to having a match again in November? Can you help me fill in the missing pieces? So yes, I do agree that the yearbooks sometimes don't tell the full story. But AJW was at a popularity peak, which means they had tons of casual fans that only watched big shows. So it should stand to reason that casual AJW fans were able to follow along and understand what was happening. They weren't watching fancams. I'm assuming the television ratings for the monthly show were fairly strong. Maybe the rental market was strong for the commercial releases? But AJW during a popularity boom should be relatively easy to follow, even if they are occasionally throwing bones to their hardcore audience.
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It's confusing quite a bit of the time, because Kong does her crowdhugging brawling whether she's facing friends or foes. She hits her opponents with chairs and garbage cans whether she's wrestling friend or foe. So it almost doesn't make a difference, because it's not like she's a better sport when she's not facing people she doesn't hate. I remember Kong crying in the crowd, but then she was against her a few months later. The way AJW pairs wrestlers in tag matches with little regard for their history is something I will never fully accept.
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"As we look at Steamboat, obviously, our thoughts have to be with Hulk Hogan" Tony Schiavone is on FIRE with the unintentionally ambiguous comments tonight. Great match that may look worse in a yearbook setting than it does isolated. I still like it, but the Hogan ambulance, announcing and Blacktop Bully heckling does take something away from it, unfortunately. But if you're able to block all of that out and focus on what the two wrestlers in the ring are doing, this was probably the second best match they had from this run (after the SN match in March). Austin really grew as a wrestler working with Steamboat. You see it through all the yearbooks, and I think it's even evident since the beginning of 1994. This is Steamboat's last chronological match that's likely to make a yearbook. A fitting match to end a great career.
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"We are looking on in horror, as you are now." DON'T TELL ME HOW I FEEL, TONY SCHIAVONE. Other funny Tony without context here: "I apologize, there's Greg Gagne, this is absolutely horrible!" This is a terribly overacted and poorly executed angle, but it made me laugh, so there's that. But now Hogan will never skate in the Olympics! Gotta love the pre-printed fan signs planted in the crowd. "CEDAR RAPIDS LOVES HULK & WCW"
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Agree with OJ here. Couldn't really get into this match very much. LOTS of downtime where nothing at all seems to be happening until Kong gets eliminated. Kong is the dominant champ of nearly two years and is the first eliminated, which I guess had to happen if they were going to spotlight Hokuto, but it still feels wrong. If the champ was going to be so carelessly eliminated, I wish they hadn't made it an elimination match. Also, I know it's an AJW booking thing, but I still don't like the idea of Hokuto and Kong as partners, like Queendom never happened and everything is fine between them. But I continue watching. And the reason I continue watching is that Hokuto fighting the odds is always a narrative that has some teeth, and she is in the ring with the type of dominant opponents that can have some fun with those odds. She fights like crazy to eliminate Hotta, and Hotta kicks out, but I don't know ... Hotta isn't really throwing her normal kicks and wrestling like herself, which doesn't make sense either. Hokuto knows how to channel her athletic ability and charisma into a great performance, and to her credit, she delivers a very good one here. And Kansai is pretty good too. But come on, it's Akira Hokuto vs Dynamite Kansai in 1994! This shouldn't feel so by-the-numbers. But even though Hokuto is pretty good, it's hardly the post-Dreamslam match with Yamada, much less the Kandori series or the Queendom tag. And it's not really enough to elevate this match on its own.
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I didn't see the good in this match that the rest of you did until the last 10 minutes or so. Toyota was pretty sloppy, slipping or nearly slipping off the ropes quite a few times. And frankly, I was bored for big chunks of this. These two can't ever seem to strike it quite right when they face each other -- they either overdo it or underdo it. This is a feud that really should be the Misawa/Kobashi of Joshi, but it just isn't. Their exciting matches are overkill. Their fundamentally sound matches are really boring. For such a famous and well-regarded rivalry, I can safely say now that I just don't see their chemistry. I've started to "get" Toyota and I can appreciate her more than I could when starting these yearbooks, but it's a very conditional love -- rarely in tag matches and in singles matches against the Hasegawas, Kongs and Hottas of the Joshi world. She brings out the best in them and they do the same for her. I can't even point to a lot that they're doing wrong in terms of building drama and laying out the match. It's not as excessive as the sprawling '92 or '95 matches, so I can see getting into it as a well-edited version of those if you like those matches I guess. But anything positive I could say about this match is demonstrated better in a different match. It felt like they were having an off night, and it also doesn't seem like either of them have really grown much since their '92 match.
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Stills of a Sandman/Dreamer match with Dreamer caning Sandman. Dreamer blocks a cane shot from Woman and kisses her. Dreamer is still in his suspenders getup, all while "Let Love Rule" plays. This is pretty bizarre editing. Then, we cut to Sandman KO'd in the ring. Woman lights a cigarette and puts in his mouth and he's suddenly awake. We close out to a promo of the two of them. Woman is a little peeved about Dreamer kissing her again. She is really good here. This whole segment feels like a weird drug trip.
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What a decline Flair had almost immediately when Hogan showed up, huh? He was never really the same guy, was he?
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New Jack calls the NAACP "homegrown monkeys" and has watermelon and fried chicken. He says everyone wishes he was "black folk" who liked that stuff, but he's a tough guy from the streets.
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Leg injury. Softball talk. Buddy buddy with Lance. Were they grooming Brian Christopher to replace Lawler? The heels are out quickly to make fun of him and get in his face before attacking him with his crutch. The Moondogs (as babyfaces??) make the save. Weird. Eddie Marlin responds to all of that by suspending Doug Gilbert!
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Buddy Landell is out with Tommy Rich and Doug Gilbert. I called it! Now he just has to disappear. Landell says he turned because he got tired of Brian Christopher bragging the whole time they were traveling about how big of a star he was in the USWA. Good promo.
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They show footage of Rich, Doug Gilbert and Scott Bowden attacking Randy Hales and cutting his hair the week before. Eddie Marlin punishes Doug by telling him his hair will be at stake in his next five matches, regardless of who he is facing.