Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Welcome to Kick Ass Wrestling. There is a wrestling war in Memphis now and KAW is more of an ECW knockoff, this being an imitation Pulp Fiction. Pretty bad, but hard to look away from it all. Sleazy stuff that looks to be filled with methheads. Steven Dunn is the biggest name I see. They have a light heavyweight title that is a completely knock off of the winged eagle WWF title.
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Looks like Randy Hales got his head shaved.
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Michinoku Pro goes Southern once again here and gives us a really good six-man tag that’s laid out like a Midnight Express match with plenty of heel stooging at the beginning leading to a long FIP section and some hot tags. This was very, very American - interesting how Michinoku Pro is providing the best old-school American stuff of 1999. Who would have expected that?
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Shorter and more of an angle-driven brawl than the previous two matches. Casas gets posted mouth-first at the top of the second fall and it looks pretty nasty. The heels have neutralized Santo, at least in the short term, so Casas is left to fight both guys on his own. He tries in vain to do so, even though it is a losing battle, but he makes an amazing babyface comeback. Because he's Negro Casas, he can use many of the shortcuts he used for years to fight on the side of good now, like a snuck in low blow. Santo's mask ends up coming completely off and he returns the favor to Scorpio. Despite the rudo dominance, Santo and Casas take this in two falls straight, and in both cases it's because they got so overzealous that they got themselves disqualified. While I really enjoyed this match, I still don't feel like we've seen the definitive matchup between these two teams, so I'm looking forward to the hair match.
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Otsuka looks awesome in this, working in some high-flying moves amidst all the great shooty stuff. Greco does an insane half Indian deathlock on Otsuka that has to be seen to be believed. Some brutal strikes with Yone getting a bloody nose. I love all the styles clashing here, and Otsuka honestly looks like the very best wrestler in the world in this match because he's more willing to mix in pro-style spots. Check out Otsuka and Yone doing all the double team moves too! This is a total pro-style tag match with the best mat wrestling anywhere in the world and lots of unexpected highspots that still work in this context. Almost at the same level as the January tag - just sublime!
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The Ministry attacks Boss Man in the parking lot and then brings him in front of the crowd to hang on his "symbol". Boss Man breaks free and gets down, but The Ministry just attacks him when he falls. The Corporation tries to make the save. Undertaker takes out everyone in security and has a staredown with the cops. Bearer gets out his cell phone and calls someone as Undertaker sets his symbol on fire and gives himself up to the cops, walking out in handcuffs. Next segment has Undertaker getting arrested while Vince yells at him. The police tell him he will be arrested if he doesn't back up.
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Yeah, Barry Darsow had a self-referential gimmick on WCW Saturday Night and worked matches in almost all of his old gimmicks except the WWF ones.
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The ill-fated Jim Ross heel turn, the brainchild of Vince Russo. The famous JR LOST HIS SMILE sign in the crowd. Jim Ross gives Dr. Death a pep talk in the back, then wants Michael Cole to join him in the ring. He complains about the switch from wrestling to sports entertainment and reveals the would-be gimmick for Steve Williams, calling it a pile of horse crap. Ross yells at Cole for not thanking him enough for providing him help early on and for burying him with the office. He ends up kicking Cole in the nads and says to drag his yankee ass to the back, because he's going back to the booth. Big pop for that and a JR chant! Well, that backfired. Ross is with Lawler and Vince and the Stooges look on in disbelief in the back. Vince asks Terry Taylor to go run Ross off and take his place for the rest of the evening. Taylor comes out to a chorus of boos and Ross gets in his face. "What are you gonna do, get a little cocky? Cluck me to death?" Steve Williams comes out to talk some sense into Ross and take him away. One of many attempts to get rid of Ross that just didn't work.
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Poor Tony Schiavone trying to stay professional while Hogan and Nash are at the broadcast booth just making fun of both guys and not even trying to get over the match and just playing lip service to the Hogan/Flair feud. This was pretty good. It’s also the only time this match ever happened, when it probably would have been huge if built up properly. Flair works his Luger/Nikita formula and does a great job making Goldberg look good. Great timing ducking the spear. Fun match that could have been so much better with more build.
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After an hour of all vignettes and nothing in front of the live audience, they start Nitro with a talking segment. Just brilliant. David wants Ric to come out and confront him. Instead of Ric, though, we get Goldberg. And a commercial break? What the hell is wrong with them? When we come back, Goldberg comes to the ring. He tells David out of respect for his family, he won't take care of this situation like he normally would. But David has to learn to respect his father, who has done more for this business than David and any ten people could do. Second, he has to learn to respect Goldberg, as this is his time. David starts poking his chest and yelling at him, so Goldberg starts manhandling him. Meanwhile, Flair arrives at the building having no idea what's going on, just seeing Goldberg manhandling his son. He comes to the ring and chops Goldberg to get him off of David, who scrams. Goldberg ends up press slamming Flair, which really sets Ric off. He starts heeling immediately and gets in Goldberg's face. Well, that's abrupt. Goldberg tells Flair he's lost his mind, and Flair has a word or two to say about that. This is a great interaction just for Flair being so worked up and Goldberg showing good charisma, but this is the point when pay-per-view nose-dived for WCW. Double turning Flair and Hogan killed the golden goose. The segment ends with making Goldberg vs Ric Flair for that evening, which is an awfully big match to get less than two hours of hype.
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This was the infamous Nitro where Nash booked all vignettes and skits in the first hour. His point was to show that they could put anything in the first hour and it wouldn't affect the ratings at all and he turned out to be dead wrong on that. Same Hogan interview from Thunder to start. Then we cut to Hogan and Nash watching the Flair promo from the previous week's Nitro and basically doing MST3K commentary on a serious promo, which is so counterproductive I don't even know where to begin. This was supposed to somehow turn Hogan face and Flair heel, which I don't get. Nash sneaks in a Buddy Landell reference. This ends with Hogan and Nash saying they have to regroup since Flair hasn't responded to losing his son. Then we get a Lex Luger spot for no apparent reason at all, considering he's out injured and won't be back anytime soon. Then we switch to color and get cops pulling over Bagwell and Scott Steiner. They give them the chance to do some police work and get off the hook. They end up going through a mall and serving citations to people for doing things like smoking in no smoking places and having expired paid parking. I have no idea what the point of this is supposed to be. Then we get a video summing up the Nash-Rey feud with really weird music and black and white effects. Now we are at a shooting range with Torrie Wilson. Hogan and Nash pay her a visit. They need a new plan and want to take her out to lunch to discuss. I actually do think making Torrie Wilson a noir seductress for hire is a really cool gimmick, which is what they seemed to be going for with her early. This goes on and on and on. Torrie suggests finding someone even hotter than her to seduce David. Torrie says if she herself is a 10, this girl is a 12. It's the famous MISS ROBINSON, who disappears after this and this never goes anywhere. WCW has fallen so far off the deep end.
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One-time appearance of Kurt Angle before he became a regular later in the year. He offers $500 to anyone in the crowd who will come to the ring and blow their nose on the American flag. I shouldn't be surprised, but people are in the crowd raising their hands and begging to be called upon. He comes out of the crowd and they acknowledge his history as an Olympic gold medalist. He gets a big pop from the crowd. Angle says no chance he'll take the bait, so Singh ups the bait to $2000. Angle says no yet again, so he ups the bait to $5000. Angle says he'll do it and teases following through before switching to Singh's flag when he turns his back. Angle gives Singh a belly-to-belly suplex to close out the segment.
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This was really good stuff, reminiscent of the Onita/Goto vs Dragon Master/Kurisu match from 1990 that everyone loved. Onita brings the personality, Tanaka the wrestling and Kanemura and Nakamaki are big time heels, even cutting the barbed wire with pliers which the crowd hates. Tenryu makes an appearance in a post-match angle and has a showdown with Onita, dissing him on a handshake offer and kicking off their feud.
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This is phenomenal. Mae Young makes a spectacular heel entrance, telling everyone in the studio to shut up and threatening to hit fans with her cane. She makes a big production of taking off her glasses and watch. After taking a snapmare from Stacy, she fakes a heart attack long enough to lure Stacy in and hit her with her purse, which prompts Cory Maclin to complain that she made us think she was looking for her nitroglycerin pills! I am in awe. Lawler is out to cut a promo on "Grandma", as fans are now calling her, as there's another house show tag coming. Please let this never end!
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Third on location promo in a row. It's less novel when it's just how everyone does their promo every time out. But Taz is the best promo in ECW so I'm always happy to hear from him.
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New Jack is bleeding for reasons I don't understand, but he vows revenge on Mustafa.
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Sean Stasiak is out with his "mom", who grabs the mic and starts yelling at everyone, cutting a promo on all Memphis grandmas for chewing tobacco. Mae Young is amazing, getting the studio crowd worked into a frenzy and beating up Cory Maclin with her purse. This woman. This wonderful woman.
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Clip from earlier today of Hales, Baldo and someone I can't make out attacking Brandon Baxter. They tease throwing Baxter off the second floor of a building. Another fantastic Michael Hayes promo. This is a real unexpected and pleasant surprise on the set. He tells Hales he'll hit him so hard he'll uncross his eyes, and he tells Baldo he'll hit him so hard he'll make him grow hair. I keep expecting Hayes to turn on Baxter and I hope I'm wrong about that.
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This has a crowd predisposed to be hot and Otani and Kanemoto are more focused on embarrassing Liger than beating him, so I think this is going to be pretty great. Liger can play that game. There's an awesome moment where Wagner puts Otani in a surfboard and Liger gouges his face while he's stuck in the air. But Kanemoto is determined to win the asshole game and tags in and knocks Liger off the apron. When Liger gets revenge a few moments later, Otani tries to run in but is held back by the ref, which gives Liger and Wagner a chance to do revenge doubleteaming. Wagner makes me laugh, running the ropes extra times and even somersaulting before kicking Kanemoto in the face simply because he can and after all, Otani/Kanemoto started this fight. We end up with both sides cheating like crazy - bootscrapes, low blows behind the ref's back, choking ... you name it. Otani even does the Wagner rope run times ten a few minutes later. This match rules! Kanemoto applies a figure four at one point, which Liger tries to block with his hand. Otani casually kicks it away. So Wagner runs in and does a Fujiwara armbar on Kanemoto while he's in the figure four, so Otani applies one on him while he has one on Kanemoto. So awesome. That's really the story of this match and I don't want to go through all the sequences, but Otani and Kanemoto are determined to be the biggest assholes out there. Liger and Wagner try to play them at their own game and get trumped every time. At one point Liger has enough and palm strikes the shit out of Otani a few times, enough to knock him loopy. Wagner also comes in later and shows a real aggressive streak, and this is what anyone should point to who says he adapted well to Japan. Another great match.
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Ogawa with another coming out party. The most interesting parts of the match - and those that get the crowd the most excited - happen when Ogawa gets a surprising amount of offense on Akiyama or Kobashi. The mood is really that Misawa believes in him as a partner and that's good enough for the fans to believe in him as well. He ends up tortured for a long time as FIP with Kobashi stretching him like crazy with some really cool holds, and Akiyama following Kobashi's lead. Pretty cool when Misawa tags in and does way more flying than I'm used to seeing from him, but Kobashi suplexes him to stop him in his tracks. Interesting dynamic to see the Kobashi-Akiyama team take on the Kawada-Taue role. Ogawa tags back in after Misawa takes a beating and goes on a tear. There's a great sequence where Ogawa locks a sharpshooter on Akiyama and hangs on for a long time despite Kobashi throwing repeated strikes at him. Then Kobashi goes on his typical Kobashi fest striking both guys like crazy, and Ogawa casually pokes him in the eye to nip it in the bud. So awesome. I love how he can cheat in an underdog way and make people root for him. The moment where they are able to give him a convincing nearfall on Kobashi is the best moment of the match. The crowd is losing their minds on every close fall he gets on either guy from there. I really thought this was incredible. It will be difficult to unseat this one as my MOTY. It's a five star layout with a few minor sloppy moments that keep it just slightly below that level for me. But it's an awfully close call. Bring on more of Ogawa walking the tightrope against main event guys.
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I felt like I might be shortchanging this, so I watched it on the Network and it is better than I remembered it being - good match. I liked Tony getting over the "match of saves" story and Windham in particular was good at adding veteran touches and using the referee to their advantage. They crowd didn't get hyped for it, but I do think it was a solid match.
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Jumbo Tsuruta is officially retiring from pro wrestling. We get a funny sounding keyboard version of his theme, but some great clips spanning the 70s, 80s and 90s. Jumbo gives a heartfelt speech and says goodbye with wrestlers surrounding the ring in track suits, including Misawa. Another classy non-wrestling segment.