Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Gene does a great job narrating a video recapping Flair's history in world title matches and at previous Starrcades. They interview some basketball coach Mike Fratello who compares Flair to Michael Jordan and also speak to a player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Love the low-key build. We wrap up with Charles Barkley throwing his support for Flair in a cool moment. -
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The teams have an impromptu brawl after Cornette calls out the Bruise Brothers. He ends up throwing powder in the eyes of one of them, leaving the other prone to a double team attack. Cornette throws a few shots too. I've said it a few times, and I'll say again that I really don't like Cornette pushing himself as equal to the wrestlers like this, even when he's getting in shots in an obvious situation like this. I don't understand the logic in having a wrestler sell shots from a manager the same way they would a wrestler.
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First, we get a really old-style Bullet promo hyping his upcoming match against Dick Murdoch with Cornette's hair on the line. Then, we cut to another Murdoch tape sent in. In a hilarious moment, he accuses Brian Armstrong of shooting unarmed Iraqis during Desert Storm! Finally, Cornette is Dutch's guest on Down and Dirty. Cornette is getting "Baldie" chants and doesn't like it one bit. I actually like Cornette's suit here.
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This is outstanding, and is really an essential promo to watch when recapping Bret's career. It's low key, it's not clever and the words don't always come to him easily, but it's so believable that it connects. Here, Vince asks Bret about Owen's challenge and Bret says under no circumstances would he ever step in the ring against his own brother.
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I have no idea why Villano IV uses Whitney Houston's "Queen of the Night" as his entrance music, but I find it really, really funny for some reason. We wanted to include at least one match from FULL, and on paper, this looked to be the best one. And it's definitely a good match. There's nothing wrong with it. But there's not really anything great about it either. Hamada has been in plenty of better matches for sure, and Villano IV may have been too. Think about your three-star undercard match from the Nitro era, and that's about where this is. It's more tempered than a Nitro match, so I'm not comparing the work style, more just the end quality. The top rope shoulderblock is in general one of my favorite moves that almost no one uses. Kobashi, Butch Reed, not too many others that stand out. Hamada does a beautiful one here. The falls are counted in a way more consistent with lucha pacing than Japanese pacing, but the psychology is Japanese all the way. Worth seeing for the novelty of it, but not so much as a hidden gem.
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I like the MSG match better, but this is easier to watch since it's pro shot. Glad we have both on the set so we can compare what they were doing on house shows to what was happening on Coliseum. Almost exactly the same spots, but the MSG match has a hotter crowd, and I'm not a fan of the Polo/Gorilla commentary team.
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I'm not sure how much of this aired on TV, but this feels like many NJ matches in that they wrestle the match knowing it's going to be JIP. The action and heat suddenly pick way up in the last 5-10 minutes, and the final stretch is really good. This is a good match, but I liked their match earlier in the year with Muto as Muta better, although that was from a Valis comm and probably less seen.
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Cornette introduces a promo sent in from Dick Murdoch. Murdoch is outside shirtless in the snow drinking beer and giving ... interesting ... history lessons on The Alamo and being flanked by two women. They go to a taped promo from Bullet explaining that if he beats Murdoch at Christmas Chaos, not only does he have to give Bullet $5,000, but Cornette also has to shave his head. Cornette is beside himself.
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Toni Adams can cut a promo! In less than two minutes, she insults multiple individual fans in the studio, professes her history of winning beauty pageants, and even points out that other men fantasize about her when having sex with their wives! The "each and every one of you" stuff and overly cutesy lines would have me swearing this was scripted by Stephanie McMahon's writing team if I didn't know better. In the middle, they show a Brian Christopher video to EMF's "Unbelievable", which Toni picks apart, and shows what a real video is like, so we get a montage of her to Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy". It's a shame Doug Gilbert has to ruin all this by talking. Eventually, Eddie joins them to a significant studio pop and does his best to turn himself heel with a really good interview.
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Toyota is knocked for a loop, Yamada and Kyoko know it and repeatedly drop her on her head, and Hokuto is left to hold her team together until Toyota gets back in the game. What's not to love? The "first" match from an action standpoint was pretty incredible. Hokuto and Toyota wanted to do a clean sweep, while Kyoko and Yamada had to win to even stay in the game, so there's a lot at stake, and the match is wrestled at a crazy pace consistent with the storyline. If there's a lesson to be learned from Hokuto's 1993, I think it's the importance of selling. She got as over as strongly as she did because every obstacle seemed insurmountable, and it seemed insurmountable because she sold the despair and hopelessness so well. Hobbling around on one leg while trying to carry the team was awesome. Yamada and Inoue have Big Mo' on their side, and do their best to not even let Toyota rest long enough to possibly recover. The stereo tombstones on the arena floor are an example of that. Eventually, Toyota does fight back, but this is maybe her best selling performance. All the melodrama, booking and world class action combine to make yet another MOTYC for 1993.
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Yeah, chalk some of that instant reaction up to overexcitement over some things you don't normally see in this style being rolled out in this match. This is a great match, probably more so than I've seen it get credit for, but it's a shade below the very best matches of the year. But there are a lot of positives, and I still think this is worth a revisit.