Loss
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The Shawn/Kid match I would have liked to have seen get a little more time, but they cut an incredible pace for the time they had. Both seem to be having a contest to see who can take the most ridiculous bumps, which Kid wins when he takes a beautiful powerslam from the apron to the arena floor. I always liked the angle here, with Shawn delivering multiple Razor's Edges and refusing to go for the cover. Razor comes out to stop it and gets attacked by Diesel from behind the curtain and Razor's Edged on the concrete a few times by Shawn. The move looks a little sloppy on the outside, but Shawn was dropping to his knees understandably so Razor wouldn't have to bump like that on the floor. Good segment. This feud seemed to get hot pretty quickly.
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I don't know what the right word is to describe this match. Cinematic? The nature of the comebacks in some ways feels more like really good fight scene material than really good pro wrestling, which is a big compliment. It's obviously not at the same level as a match, but in its own way, this match has just as much charm as Dreamslam. It's a shift in dynamics. Kandori could put Hokuto out when she's ready, but she spends a great deal of the match toying with Hokuto, while Hokuto wrestles this a lot less from underneath than she did Dreamslam. It feels like a fitting end to a chapter to see Hokuto go down in flames like this. No promotion in wrestling history does tragedy better than AJW. The emotion reminds me of Chigusa/Dump in that all of Hokuto's peers see what is happening and are pretty bummed about it, but they're really powerless to stop it. From an action standpoint, this is pretty great. I love the intensity behind the slapfest early on, love Kandori casually putting a stop to Hokuto's arrogance by going after her arm again. The super bomb (I don't know what else to call it) looks like it could have killed her. Has the feel of a boxing match at times with all the slugging. Great match, but more than that, this is really a classic moment in wrestling history.
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I'm not sure I needed to see this match. These teams had already produced two of the greatest matches of all time, so I'm not sure what was left for them to do. Maybe you can compare this to the Flair/Steamboat trilogy -- Dream Rush is Chi-Town. It's probably not the "best" match of the series, but there's an atmosphere that makes the whole outweigh the sum of its parts. Dreamslam II is Clash 6 -- technically the best of the series. This is Wrestle War '89 -- a match that is well regarded and is good, but feels lacking compared to the rest of the series. Even the stuff that is well done resonates more in the previous matches. It's good for sure, and I'm glad it made the yearbook, because it needed to be here. But I think its main purpose is to demonstrate that the bar had been raised to a point where it just couldn't be held anymore, so even an excellent match seems lacking. The heat is nowhere near what it was for the first two matches either.
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This was FUCKING GREAT. Absolutely FUCKING GREAT. Kudo wrestles like the Joshi version of Arn Anderson and systematically destroys Kong's arm. In what gets annoying in American matches, but feels cool in Japan because it doesn't happen very often, there's a ref bump, and Kudo gets a visual fall. Kudo's surprise powerbomb from the top rope into a reeaaaaalllly close call was tremendous. This also really had the feel of a world title match because of the pacing being a little slower than normal. I want to make sure I like this because it's as awesome as I think it is, and not just that it stands out because they were doing things not everyone was doing, but my instinct is to call this second to Kong/Kansai as the best Kong match of the year, and also call it a fairly high-end MOTYC, one I think I even liked better than Thunderqueen and the Dreamslam II main event. I'm not sure what the rep is for this match, but it deserves a genuine revisit and evaluation from anyone who hasn't watched it in a long time.
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I like Lance Russell, but I don't see the argument for him as better than Jim Ross. When I listen to Ross's call of Vader/Sting at the Great American Bash '92, for example, I consider that possibly the best match call I've ever heard. I agree with many of the criticisms of Jim Ross post-1997, but I'm pretty solidly in support of him prior to that.
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This match is feeling a little worn out by this point, but it's another worthy addition to the feud. The best match in the series remains the first. As a feud, this feels lacking because there is little continuity from one match to the next. But individually, each match ranges between very good and great.
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I'll try to keep that in mind when we get to the '94 yearbook. I don't know how to answer that question at the moment.
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Here's a question that some might think everyone knows the answer to, but I'm curious to hear people explain it. What did everyone here think of Jim Ross as an announcer pre-WWF? I think he was fantastic, and he's part of the reason I'm so tough on Gorilla Monsoon, but I'm just curious what everyone else thought. It's been touched on in this thread that he tried too hard at times, and I can see that, but I still prefer him to ... well ... any other wrestling announcer ever.
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Reo is obviously a Dusty Rhodes impersonation, waving his hands like Dusty and saying "funky like a monkey" and "if you wiiiilll ..." Shawn Michaels, dressed in a suit holding the IC title, is his guest. Shawn makes threats to Razor Ramon walking around with the IC title, which brings out Razor. Razor holds his own and pops Shawn's gum with his toothpick. Between this and Bret/Owen, the seeds for WM are being sewn already.
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Even better than the Misawa/Kobashi match a few days earlier. I do think, to Ditch's earlier point, that Bossman would have had to continue adapting to have performances this strong for any length of time, but in these two matches, he's terrific and works really hard.
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I agree with that. Part of it is problems some of us have with the WWF's wrestling philosophy in general. It manifests itself in many ways -- heels getting visual falls after ref bumps, Hogan being an asshole in his feuds and it being okay -- and the announcing is part of the overall issue. The moral point of view of the Hogan era always seemed to be, "If you're popular, you can do whatever you want and no one will care." It changed a little when Bret rose to the top, but Austin and Rock were later able to treat everyone like shit and not get called on it too. I think it's Vince's worldview creeping into his television presentation.
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Oh, well I agree with everything in that letter. And I do agree that Baba added something to the match because he was such a star, and I'm not sure the crowd would have reacted as strongly as they did were he not there. Misawa in my mind has had a slightly better year than Kobashi, although both have had great years. Misawa from what I've seen is the best wrestler in the world in '93. I know you mentioned that Kobashi might be a little short-changed through the yearbook, so perhaps that is what has happened.
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My favorites for November: #1 - Satanico vs Pirata Morgan (AAA 11/26/93) ****3/4 #2 - Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Chono (NJPW 11/04/93) ****1/2 #3 - Devil Masami & Plum Mariko vs Chigusa Nagayo & Cutie Suzuki (JWP 11/20/93) ****1/2 #4 - Shinobu Kandori & Utazo Hozumi vs Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue (LLPW 11/09/93) ****1/4 #5 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen & Giant Baba (AJPW 11/30/93) ****1/4 #6 - Sakie Hasegawa & Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota & Akira Hokuto (AJW 11/12/93) ****1/4 #7 - El Hijo del Santo & Octagon vs Eddy Guerrero & Art Barr (AAA 11/06/93) ****1/4 #8 - Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies (WWF Survivor Series 11/24/93) **** #9 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Steve Williams & Big Boss Man (AJPW 11/24/93) **** #10 - Vader & Steve Austin vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson (WCW Saturday Night 11/13/93) ***3/4 #11 - Steve Austin vs Brian Pillman (WCW Clash of the Champions XXV 11/10/93) ***1/2 #12 - Terry Funk vs Sabu (ACW 11/06/93) ***1/2 #13 - Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Stan Hansen & Giant Baba (AJPW 11/24/93) ***1/2 #14 - Genichiro Tenryu vs Ashura Hara (WAR 11/11/93) ***1/4 #15 - El Dandy vs Emilio Charles Jr (CMLL 11/21/93) ***1/4
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Hell of a match, one that I will rank pretty highly for the year. They covered nicely for Baba. I'd be interesting in reading John's letter to the WON again to see how he broke down Baba's performance here, because while he was hardly bad, there was nothing particularly impressive that I saw, other than making it through the match without collapsing. I look at the good things in this as a credit to Misawa, Kobashi and Hansen, who manuevered their way around Baba nicely. I'd call this a great match in spite of Baba more than because of him, and that's coming from someone who likes Baba quite a bit.
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First, they bring out the runner-up Lex Luger. Interesting that the version of history has always been that they didn't decide until the Rumble to go with Bret, but Luger being positioned as #2 to Bret as #1 in this segment makes me think otherwise, unless this was the result of legit fan voting. Heenan cracks me up really thinking he's going to win this.
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Gene Okerlund is now in WCW! I think he was before this, but this is his first WCW appearance on the yearbook. With a straight face, they suggest that Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico City, several cities in Canada, all the major cities in the United States ... and Des Moines, Iowa (??). The final decision is made that Starrcade will be held in Charlotte. Vader and Race are there in suits, and Flair shows up with a contract to claim that he wants to be in the world title match. It's in the contract that if Flair doesn't win the WCW World title from Vader at Starrcade, Flair will retire. Vader reminds him of everyone he has sidelined, and Flair wants it. Both Flair and Vader are really great in this. Flair in a compelling program makes a huge difference.
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Long match for TV, and good action. The Moondogs run in and attack the Rock & Rolls, leaving Smothers prone to a 3-on-1 attack until the Bruise Brothers make the save. I love it when the top feuds combine like this. Smothers puts a figure four on Lee and Tammy saves by attacking Smothers with her loaded purse. Lee has the upper hand, then DWB makes the save and runs him off. Smothers and White Boy have a stand-off and they tease a handshake, but Smothers just walks away.
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The biggest thing was criticizing wrestlers for not hooking the leg when the WWF rule was that you only hook the leg for the real finish. Made the wrestlers look stupid and himself look smart for pointing it out.