Loss
Admins
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by Loss
-
January: #1 - Devil Masami, Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo vs Mayumi Ozaki, Plum Mariko & Cutie Suzuki (JWP 01/09/94) ****1/2 #2 - Bull Nakano vs Kyoko Inoue (AJW 01/24/94) ****1/2 #3 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/94) ****1/4 #4 - Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta (AJW 01/24/94) ****1/4 #5 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Bret & Owen Hart (WWF Wrestlefest 01/11/94) **** #6 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (AJW 01/24/94) ***3/4 #7 - Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon (WWF San Jose, CA 01/14/94) ***3/4 #8 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 01/07/94) ***3/4 #9 - Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi & Giant Baba vs Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (AJPW 01/29/94) ***1/2 #10 - 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty vs The Quebecers (WWF MSG 01/17/94) ***1/2 #11 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Shiro Koshinaka (WAR 01/14/94) ***1/2 #12 - Sting vs Steve Austin (WCW Saturday Night 01/01/94) ***1/4 #13 - Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Kitahara vs Keiji Muto & El Samurai (WAR 01/05/94) ***1/4 #14 - 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty vs Headshrinkers (WWF Wrestlefest 01/11/94) *** #15 - 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty vs Quebecers (WWF Monday Night RAW 01/10/94) *** #16 - Ric Flair, Sting & The Boss vs Rick Rude, Steve Austin & Ron Simmons (WCW Saturday Night 01/22/94) *** #17 - Steve Austin vs Brian Pillman (WCW Saturday Night 01/15/94) *** #18 - Bret & Owen Hart vs The Quebecers (WWF Royal Rumble 01/22/94) #19 - Undertaker vs Yokozuna (WWF Royal Rumble 01/22/94) 1994 definitely started strong. There haven't been very many strong promos yet, but the in-ring has been excellent. -
-
Tail end of a Marty Jannetty vs Johnny Polo match. 1-2-3 Kid and IRS are doing commentary and end up arguing. Jannetty comes to Kid's rescue and Kid sneaks away with the briefcase. After the break, IRS notices the briefcase is missing and goes to reclaim it when Razor comes out with the gold back around his neck. It's heartwarming to see Kid and Jannetty defend their drug dealer like this. Jannetty does another libertarian-style promo, saying IRS can't do anything without the "stinkin' government's" help. Ron Paul would love 1994 WWF booking.
-
-
Col. Parker has to wear the chicken suit based on the Clash match. Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce attack Pillman from behind, then Austin joins in. They're about to put Pillman in the chicken suit instead, but the babyfaces clear the locker room and force the issue. Heenan is hilarious on commentary asking people not to watch this, and Robert Fuller is AMAZING at physical comedy. Entertaining segment.
-
Cornette sets up a taped promo with the Funks. Dory Funk looks like he's about to play Charles Dickens in community theater. His promo makes me think he got out of his cage, but Terry is great. We follow up with comments from The Bullet, then Cornette takes us home in front of the crowd in style.
-
-
Tunney announces that the WWF title will be defended twice this year at Wrestlemania. There will be a coin toss on Raw to see who faces Yokozuna, and when you compare Luger/Crush (if Bret wins the coin toss) to Bret/Owen (if Luger wins the coin toss), it's obvious which direction they are going.
-
Kobashi wins again! Dave's ***** rating is a head scratcher, but I always enjoy watching the ***** WON matches no one ever talks about. There are a few of them on this set. There's nothing here that will change the world, but it's what you like from these guys. Fuchi standing on Kobashi's chin was my personal highlight.
-
Joined in progress. Vader is putting the hurt on Flair in a big way and throws some great punches at him. He hits a top rope superplex which the announcers sell like crazy and the crowd doesn't respond to at all for some reason. Vader and Flair get eliminated after some excessive Vader brutality. Vader says "SHIT!" on camera when learning of his elimination! And we're left with Rude and Sting. Rude is pretty done by this point, but that doesn't stop him from playing pinball for Sting, including getting insane height off of a back body drop. The fans are distracted by something and aren't really responding to anything happening in the ring, even though for the late stages of this feud, it's not bad stuff. Sting getting the Rude Awakening on Rude finally woke the crowd up, which was followed by Rude missing a Stinger Splash! They fight over a tombstone, which always gets over with every WCW crowd ever, and Sting nails it before getting in a frog splash and sealing the deal. Pretty good. Hogan foam fingers in the crowd this early?
-
-
"Heenan, won't you leave me alone? You follow me everywhere." -- Gene Okerlund, Clash of the Champions XXVI, shortly after Bobby Heenan's debut
-
-
Rey is obviously at fault for being on something that caused him to fail a wellness exam, but still ... it's interesting that they're testing him when he's out. Did they show up at his door and demand a urine sample?
-
-
-
-
I was trying not to be too colored by MJH's thoughts, but I couldn't help it, because I largely agreed with him. All in all, this was a very good match. But there are moments where it's great, and they can't really sustain it. So I agree that this is frustrating because it deserved to be better than it ended up being. But there are too many average or blah moments in between the high points. It was tough for me to pay attention to everything going on in the first fall. I just couldn't connect to it. At this point, with a Toyota tag, I know the action level is a given -- and this is no exception, it's world class stuff -- so I'm looking for things that make it stand out in other ways. In this case, aside from some brief moments like Mita biting Toyota's hand, there just wasn't much substance beyond the flash. The second fall was a great match on its own. The main reason it's better is that the LCO gets more aggressive and is awesome at displaying a real mean streak. The third fall was largely good, but had a few moments where they lost the crowd. By the end, they had them back, but they took a few detours along the way. Also, Shimoda is a better wrestler than Mita, but Mita has more charisma and a better idea of how to be a bitch, so they complement each other well.
-
This was a war. Kyoko wrestles like she has something to prove and Bull is reliable, probably the best Joshi worker of all time. The match starts off with Bull as the aggressor, and as it progresses, Kyoko gets in her shots, but barely. Bull is cutting off Kyoko's offense pretty consistently, but is having to expend quite a bit to do so. It's pretty impressive that she can be in control of the match and still convey desperation at the same time. It's like she knows Kyoko is going to make a huge comeback at some point, and every time she covers her, you can see on her face that she really wants the match to end, but knows deep down that she still has a lot of work to do. When something works, like her back kicks off the middle rope, she clings to it as long as she can. The spot mid-match that sees Kyoko's ankle tied in the ropes, followed by Bull's immediate tope when the underlings start trying to release her, feels like the beginning of a gut check for Kyoko. She realizes she's going to have to step up her game and takes the aggression to the floor, and even does a crazy lariat running down several stairs to finally nail Bull on the outside. When she starts teasing table spots, I keep thinking she's out of her league and trying to beat Bull at her own game, but she is holding her own and is surprising me. Bull finally wins the match, but it takes every weapon she has in her arsenal. More than anything, she survived, and Kyoko is the one who was put over. Great, great match that seemed focus on getting over Kyoko's toughness and ring smarts- not just her wrestling skill - with her taking the fight to Bull aggressively and forcing Bull to reach down deep and get desperate. This felt like the evolution of Kyoko from an athletic wrestler who has had some big matches and that fans like to someone who is a real threat to the existing hierarchy, and that's pretty cool.
-
-
We join in just before Tenryu is eliminated and we have our final four. I remember Shawn putting on a great performance in this match, and he looks good for the short period of time reflected here. This finish never bothered me too much since it set WM up just fine. Bret getting the much bigger reaction I always thought was revisionist history at its finest, but re-watching this, it's pretty apparent that's the case.
-
Punk/Jericho has been so horrible. It's time for this feud to end, but I have a feeling it's not going to end yet.
-
YOU AND THAT ROTTING FLESH YOU CALL AN ENTOURAGE -- The video package before the match is the best part of all of this, and that quote is one of my favorites ever in wrestling and never fails to make me laugh. This match was actually pretty good until the booking kicked in. These two do have good chemistry, but they were never really put in a position to have a decent match. Nothing really new to say about the angle, except that there is still a part of me that is surprised it ever happened at all.
-
"You, and that rotting flesh you call an entourage ..." -- The Undertaker to Yokozuna, in the buildup to the 1994 Royal Rumble
-
There were definitely things I liked about the match, but it was my least favorite match of all the Quebecers ones so far. I don't blame them so much as I do the actual finish to the match (stopping it seemed unnecessary) and some of the other weird booking things (Ray Rougeau REALLY thought he could do an interview with Bret when he's being stretchered out?) I do think this was a great angle as far as the turn itself, but I didn't like this as much this time as I remembered liking it in the past. And of course, Owen with his post-match promo is one for the ages.