Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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In a career filled with great matches and moments, this may be my favorite for Misawa, because it's such a triumphant conquering of the odds. This is probably Taue's finest hour, but in the end, Misawa was still The Man. The dynamic bomb had secured wins over Kawada and Kobashi. Misawa kicked out. While Kawada didn't shy away from Misawa's face, Taue went after it far more aggressively than anyone else had. The heat he gets every time he does it is amazing, and he managed to shock me every time that he would go there yet again. Taue had a clear strategy and he pulled it off in excellent fashion, but it just wasn't enough to put Misawa away. As we had seen before, when it looked like someone finally had his number, Misawa always found a way to bounce back. My easy MOTY to date, and pretty safely in the top handful of matches for the decade as well.
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I seem to remember a rumor in '97 that Ricky Steamboat would return to WCW and play a part in the Savage/DDP feud.
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I like Tito, but he's not someone who I look back on with a great sense of "What if?" To me, he was used exactly as he should have been -- an upper midcard babyface who could be counted on to deliver a good match or get a storyline point across in a match when the situation required it. He did well in that role, and good for him. He had a good career and considering the time period, I think he was used exactly as he should have been. He wasn't a world champion or top headliner, but he didn't need to be. He was used in a way that played to his strengths. Perhaps in a different era, he'd be a guy with an impressive resume of good TV matches. I think he'd be the guy that faced the top heel and had just enough credibility to make you think he might pull off the win, but he'd lose in the end.
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So this is GAEA? This is my first time to watch a GAEA match, and it's also my first time to see Devil Masami doing the Super Heel gimmick. I thought this was a super match. I know DEAN loved GAEA, and I don't really know what anyone else thought, but if it's all like this, I'm inclined to agree with him. I've seen Ozaki give some of the best individual performances of all time, but she was as good as I've ever seen her in this match, but in a much different way than usual. It was also great to see Chigusa again. She's *slightly* below the level she was in the 80s, but she still has amazing charm and charisma and the audience is excited to see her. From what I understand, Devil as Super Heel can really suck at times, but here, it didn't at all. She was like a much better version of the best version of the Undertaker. There wasn't a dull moment, and in spite of all the chaos, there was a clear logical progression in how the match unfolded instead of just doing mindless brawling. And even the crowd brawling, which I normally hate in Joshi, worked because Devil was so wrapped up in her gimmick. Taking every chair she could find and throwing a separate shot was tremendous. The end result surprised me, but maybe it shouldn't. I guess it's standard fare when a big star comes back for them to eat the fall in their first match. Plus, it opens the door for Chigusa/Ozaki matches later in the year (which happen to be on the yearbook!)
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Vader's punches on Patriot are awesome, and he and Arn are a really good team with some nice doubleteam spots that surprised me. Vader and Arn working over Patriot works really well and I like the headbutt to the stomach on Bagwell when he's bridging a Fisherman's suplex. Plus, Flair is going insane at ringside. Really fun match. Vader, Arn and Flair, a terrific top heel group, do a post-match promo.
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Hogan, Savage and Jimmy Hart come into the Board of Directors meeting, "looking like a float in the Rose Bowl parade", in the words of PWI at the time. Everyone votes the same they did before, including KENSUKE ISHIKAWA, with Woman From France being the swing vote in favor of reinstating Flair. In a nice touch, Hogan and Savage shake everyone's hands except nay voters Gary Juster and Dieter Krap! Ric Flair is back!
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Dave is doing a bedside promo flanked by Hogan merchandise thanking fans for their support. Hogan calls him mid-vignette (of course we don't hear Hogan's voice, because Hogan couldn't be bothered to shoot angles very often at this point in WCW). Kimberly tries to bring him a gift, but then sees the camera and panics. If I remember right, this was a pet rabbit.
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Footage from a singles match in a different arena, but from the same episode of TV. Last few minutes. Pretty heated, and I'm guessing this was a better match than most people might think. Morton gets the glove and the ref goes down, leaving Morton to get the visual fall. Finally Snow comes in the ring with a chair and gives Morton three piledrivers, the last one on a chair, before switching the glove out. Gibson tries to help and meets a Snow pescado right away, opening the door for Unabomb to get the win. Morton does an amazing sell job afterward, with most of the top babyfaces helping gurney Morton out as the announcer screams over the PA to get a doctor, or for someone to call 9-1-1. They do an amazing video to "American Pie" with Ricky Morton ambulance footage to close things out. Outstanding angle that could sadly never be done today.
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Just the post-match. Undertaker is taken out of the picture pretty quickly while the Gangstas stay behind and beat the hell out of Cornette, Armstrong and Smothers. The Gangstas end up not saluting the rebel flag in accordance with the pre-match stipulation, but instead spray paint a black X on Armstrong. Finally, the Undertaker makes his way back to the ring and runs them off. Back in the locker room, Bob Armstrong is too pissed off to speak and Smothers gives a really good, fired up promo, as does Cornette.
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Nice, big crowd for this one, as it's part of the Bluegrass Brawl. The match has some edits, but there is some awesome footage. Great, sustained heat. Snow looks like a superstar in waiting. This has great heat and Snow is really fun as the heel who shows ass and hides behind his much larger, scarier tag team partner. Glen Jacobs really is a competent version of Sid. Even with the edits, this is pretty coherent and it's a great match. Don't let the gimmick fool you -- this is really a strong Southern tag that just happens to have the glove as part of the match, instead of being a match built around slow climbing. Nice spot with Morton climbing on Unabomb to get to the glove first. I wonder if the extra time would have enhanced it or taken it down a notch. Snow and Unabomb end up winning the tag titles, and I like Snow's post-match interview talking about his 13-year path to the top quite a bit. He's not the smoothest talker, but he says all the right things, and says them convincingly.
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Tommy Rich shows up at ringside and raises hell, which Randy Hales hates. They get in an argument on the house mic with Rich flaunting his ticket in Hales' face. What little is shown of the match looks pretty inspired. After a ref bump, Rich jumps over the guardrail and pushes Lawler on top of Dundee, giving Lawler the YOU-nified title. After the match, Dundee grabs Rich from ringside and throws him in the ring. Rich takes a few nice bumps before Rich pulls something out of his jeans and hits Dundee with it. Back to the studio, Dundee is out for an interview. Rich has now cost him matches against both Lawler and Razor Ramon, and he's not happy about it. They're about to have a First Blood Match at MSC, and almost on cue, Rich is out. They smack each other around a little bit, and have a fun brawl. It's a shame the nature of the footage is what it is, because based on what I've seen so far, Rich is having a fantastic year.
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This was a pretty good match. Mechanically, it was excellent, but there wasn't nearly enough emotion or fire behind most of this. Otani and Kanemoto tried for that, and it's obvious they're building a feud, but the audience didn't take to it at all really. Hamada brings something fun to the match because his highspots aren't really typical New Japan juniors highspots, but this still felt like a match smothered by a limited formula. It's very good, but it could have been better. Interesting in that it really exposes both the positives and limitations of that formula.
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Dave is too aloof to kill columns. I suspect it's something far more innocent, like that he just overlooks them or forgets about them.
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Well I definitely wasn't disappointed with this match, and I can see the praise. I don't think the gap is big, but this isn't a clear frontrunner to me when comparing Kawada/Kobashi matches. They each have a specific quality I love. Comparing this to their January draw, it's a more focused match with a far, far more dramatic conclusion (add the first 50 minutes of the January draw to the last 10 minutes of this one and I think you'd have a legit GOAT candidate). It starts with a lot of spots and sequences borrowed from the Taue match five days earlier, and I think they were spots that worked better with Taue than Kobashi. And my immediate thought was, "I bet people who praise this didn't watch it in the context of the Taue match, so it didn't resonate with them that this is a carbon copy." But that was a premature conclusion -- the match does take a different turn. I always enjoy Kawada working over Kobashi's knee because I think he has a right to hold a grudge over the 12/93 tag. This match is largely a stalemate. Kawada goes after Kobashi's knee and Kobashi responds in kind. There are lots of great payback spots too. This is all about placing these two on equal footing (not that their other matches hadn't done the same thing in many ways). While the opening moments of the January match felt like the best possible classic NWA World title defense, this felt more like king-sized stadium wrestling. They milk incredible drama over the momentum shifts of a simple test of strength and get a couple of minutes out of just that, with the crowd popping for each twist and turn. That's when you know these two guys are among the greatest of all time -- you see how much less they could get by doing and still be great, yet they still do more anyway. Anyway, Kobashi breaking the stalemate with a tiger suplex was outstanding. So I'm not sure I want to choose between my Kawada/Kobashi matches. The January match was a title defense and was worked really well as a classic title defense. This match was a 30-minute draw where they were placed in a workhorse position but weren't the central focus of the Carny, and they delivered the appropriate match for that. So far, Kawada/Taue remains my favorite Carny match, but it's a close call, and one I may change my mind about later.
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Could be. IIRC, Flair did skip out on a TV taping because he was mad about the decision happening so fast.
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According to Bret, the title win over Flair wasn't televised because Flair refused to put him over on TV.
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It will be interesting to see who's right and who's wrong in this case. One or the other will end up with major egg on their face.
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Not so much in a "This guy is money" way, but I always got the impression based on how long of a run he had that Vince had a lot of confidence in Santana as a mechanic. He trusted him to have good matches and get the point across in the ring.
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That's a really interesting question with regards to Ricky Morton. He had a pair of excellent matches with Bobby Eaton in 1990 that may or may not be better than this. This is in the top handful for sure. But that's a really good question worth re-visiting after the 1990 yearbook. There is also praise for the '91 GAB match against Gibson in some circles, so that is one that should probably be watched before answering this question too.
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I felt this way watching a lot of the 1996 stuff, but I've just grown to accept some things as part of the style. The lack of long-term selling can get annoying at times, but I've justified it by saying that at least they're consistent between matches in how certain moves are sold. I won't say I don't understand you looking at it this way, but I will offer up some recommendations that aren't "workrate" matches that I think might appeal more to you. Check out Hokuto vs Yamada from May of '93 (built around Hokuto still selling injuries from the Kandori match at Dreamslam) and Kudo vs Kong from December of '93 (with Kudo taking the match in a more familiar direction in line with a traditional world title match). Ozaki's matches -- and JWP matches in general -- tend to be more about hate and violence and less about the big spots, but I actually prefer this style to Ozaki's usual style, because her grudge matches have her doing things so brutal that I get frustrated sometimes when something that should be the finish isn't. Really, I've found that AJW has its own mythology surrounding how much things should hurt. Debbie Malenko did commentary on a '92 match and explained this in a way that I thought put the overall psychology in perspective. After some huge moves, she pointed out that hopefully those moves "stung" enough to maybe catch a quick pin. I don't know how many big moves are intended to be so devastating that they change the complexion of the match. And I understand that not being for everyone. Also, some of the top-notch mat wrestlers like Yoshida and Yagi might be more your speed.
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Sure. Even if that is typical WWF booking, it doesn't negate my point. Look at how Diesel was portrayed. Look at how Bret was portrayed. They weren't larger-than-life characters, they were athletes with specific skill sets and strategies, and with lives outside of the WWF. Vince made a deliberate attempt to make them authentic and relatable instead of pushing them as superhuman. During the Diesel/Sid feud, they actually played up Diesel's legit elbow injury to make him sympathetic. Typical WWF booking would be to ignore the injury for fear that it would make him look weak.
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Yet another terrific Carnival match. Taue was excellent here, but Misawa was on another level. I think back to '93, and the February match against Taue was one of my favorite Misawa performances. This is another outstanding Misawa performance. Most Taue matches aren't as good as Misawa's matches with Kawada and Kobashi, but I think Misawa gets the chance to put on better individual performances against Taue. As a match, this is great at times, but mostly just solid and really good. It's in the bottom rung of the Carnival matches for me so far. But if I were ranking individual performances in the Carnival, Misawa in this would rank pretty highly.
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If it's true, it's probably just a case where Vince wanted to put the belt on a good worker and they went through all the good workers on the roster and decided Bret would be the best of the bunch.