Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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Clips of a match from Mid South Coliseum, which look excellent, but this doesn't have the heat it should have. They looked to have repeated a lot of spots from the studio, like Kamala picking up the ringside table and throwing Lawler into it. The referee jumps Kim Chee (not sure if he was called that here) when he tries to interfere too much. Lawler gets a visual fall but there's no referee to count. Finally, The Sandman makes a run-in and throws Lawler into his surfboard, leading to Kamala getting the pin and taking the USWA title. -
Bret Hart wins a Wrestler of the Year award, which is funny, because Hogan has had a banner year. Bret broke through as a singles guy, but there isn't a lot on his resume yet. Still, wrestling is about building stars, and Bret probably got more from this than Hogan would have. Fred Blassie is there to present.
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Wow. This may be the best Hulk Hogan match ever. It could pass for a Wrestlemania main event. He doesn't rest on his personality here -- this is a great actual wrestling match. Not great for a Hogan match, or a great spectacle, but a great wrestling match. The matwork at the beginning was really inspired. Hogan did his usual matwork spots, but also sold the holds from Tenryu well. I loved him fucking up his knee on a high knee attempt to pay off Tenryu working on it in the early matwork. I also really enjoyed all the finisher teases. The ax bomber is hit partially a few times before he finally gets it in the end. The legdrop isn't enough to put Tenryu away. What a great performance from Hogan, and kudos to Tenryu for bringing out the best in him. We even see Hogan pull off an enzuigiri! Hogan found an extremely viable way to reinvent himself as U.S. wrestling changed toward the end of the decade, but I wish this was the guy who had showed up in 1994 WCW, because he would have fit in with where the promotion already was at that point, and they wouldn't have had to massively reinvent WCW as an 80s WWF retread if this was the type of Hogan we were getting.
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The story seems to be a fresh Yamada and Kyoko coming after a tired Jungle Jack. Which makes Jungle Jack still getting so much offense interesting. It seems like that would be a weird story to tell, but it does somehow work. They're dominant, but not as dominant as they normally would be. I think they did that so the fresher team getting the win would still seem like an earned victory instead of something they only won because they were facing a tired team. This was pretty tricky to pull off, and I give them credit for getting it right.
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This was a great match in continuing to spotlight the Aja/Bull rivalry. Hokuto and Bison also match up really well. I really liked the work on Bison's taped up knee and wish we could have had a little more of it. Bull's "Fuck You" dive to the floor followed by Hokuto's "Impassioned Selling" dive to the floor is a funny contrast. Jungle Jack take the win as we segue to the next match.
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Pretty crazy trios match -- easily the best of 1991 -- that will end up somewhere in my top ten for the year. I don't usually enjoy watching wrestling "cold" these days. I like to see lead-ins to big matches and know a little bit about the wrestlers when possible. But I'll make an exception here because the action is so great. The brawling starts off right away and by the third fall they are mixing that in with some really crazy daredevil spots. This also is sort of a lucha greatest hits, as it contains so many awesome things about the style in one match. And they actually hugged it out when this was all over? There's some unmasking at the end of this from Trio Fantasia. I think this is another match I'd call a really strong lucha libre primer. It's the only 1991 lucha match I've seen that really doesn't feel light years behind what El Dandy was doing in 1990.
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One of the more odd matches of 1991 -- an ISLAND DEATH MATCH -- with Singh and a very very bloody Hase duking it out in a ring set up on some remote island. It's a very weird sight seeing them brawl all over the grass while surrounded by photographers, young boys, police and men in suits. The amount of blood on Hase is pretty gross. Doing it indoors in a ring is one thing, but juicing like that in the great outdoors while bumping on dirt and grass seems stupid. This feels way more IWA than New Japan. I'm not really sure why they did this match and would appreciate any insight anyone has.
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Jim Ross is saying "physically intense", so maybe it's not just a WWF thing. We get a clip of Sting vs Rude at the Omni on Thanksgiving night, which looks to be a great match. The last few minutes of the match are good. We can't see the entire match, and I liked that they milked the knee injury from the Clash for weeks instead of just making it a one-night injury that cost him the title, even though I think they could have taken that even farther. Paul E. distracts the referee when he locks Rude in the scorpion. Madusa runs in to attack Sting behind the referee's back, but it doesn't really work. Sting throws Rude to the floor from a press slam with Rude taking a hellacious bump, then follows with an awesome plancha to the floor. Rude and Co. work over Sting's knee with a chair - throwing out the match - until the babyfaces save. This feud is hot, and not a moment too soon -- Sting needed a hot feud pretty desperately at this point.
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This is scheduled to be Tom Pritchard vs Tony Falk in a non-title match, but Embry attacks Pritchard from behind before the match begins. Wrestlers should know by now to watch for Embry in the studio, considering the havoc he has wreaked this year. He ends with a DDT on the concrete floor, which is sold like death. The reason he's so upset? Pritchard commented on his girlfriend, and Embry insists that he stay out of his personal life. This after flaunting his personal life on television. Again, I love how in touch Memphis wrestling is with genuine things people hate about people, because this is a complaint people make about celebrities all the time.
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Not a bad studio match, and it's cool to see it given so much time. Lawler sells most of the match for Kamala -- like, it's 100% Kamala offense until the last minute or two of the match when Lawler starts throwing punches for his comeback. Kamala looks awfully spry. Kamala shoves the ref multiple times. At first, I thought the referee pushing should have ended in a DQ, but it plays into the post-match angle nicely. Lawler throws fire at Kamala for the finish, which makes Kamala take off running to the dressing room. Referee Frank Morrell holds up the belt based on the finish of this match -- the fire from Lawler plus the fireball. Lawler isn't happy about this. Eddie Marlin doesn't agree either, saying the match should have ended right away when Kamala shoved the referee, and Lawler should have won by DQ. That's EXACTLY what I was thinking, which shows how awesome the USWA is with being in touch with those sorts of details where they book things through the perspective of someone watching at home -- a perspective completely lost and rarely even considered in today's scene. This all sets up a No DQ match for Monday night, which is the cherry on top of a great presentation.
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Eric Embry has a haircut (and washed hair??) and he's in a suit with a high-class woman (CJ) on his arm. How about that? He says CJ told him he had been in the Mid South area so long that he was starting to look like the locals and it frightened him, which is why he has this makeover. Embry seems a little smitten, but Dave Brown implores him to talk about wrestling, so he mentions Embry vs Pritchard at MSC with Tony Falk's hair vs Pritchard's title. They sell the consequences of Falk losing his hair as meaningless, with CJ telling him she'll have no problem giving him a new look if necessary, which seems like an ineffective way to get over a stip.
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This is my most anticipated Update of any yearbook, I think just because I loved all the chaos of the Hogan/Undertaker finish because it was so well done. What is going to happen? Jack Tunney warns that this will not be a popular decision, but he has to do what is right, which is to declare the WWF title vacant. The winner of the Royal Rumble will be the new champion. Because of Hogan and Undertaker's special standing, they will draw entry numbers only from 21-30. This Rumble was really well set up.
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Missy Hyatt makes ridiculous Pearl Harbor comments to introduce Jushin Liger, which really shows how behind the times wrestling is. The highlights do a great job of establishing Liger as a talented high-flyer, but they are accompanied by stereotypical Japanese music and Missy's xenophobic wraparounds. WCW is incapable of doing anything right.
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The chronological yearbook debut of Volk Han. He looks awesome here. You may have seen submissions before, but he also has a lot of what I like to call subsubmissions, for lack of a better term. For example, applying a larger submission hold, like a leglock, while at the same time applying a smaller submission hold, like an ankle lock. He is amazingly crafty and seems dangerous from any position. This match really captures the essence of what made him great. Maeda is doing the same takeovers and submission attempts that everyone in UWFI was doing at the time, so I guess it's fair to say that the distinguished RINGS style is more because of Han's ring work than Maeda's. That said, I thought Maeda looked good here too, especially with the surprise high kick that popped the crowd and did a great job teasing a finish. I liked the acutal finish too, as they were playing tug of war with limbs. This feels like a really good intro for RINGS, for this style and for Volk Han.
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This match again. FEEL the enthusiasm. One of the best things about finishing the 1991 Yearbook is that I will probably never have to watch a Doc/Gordy tag again. I guess there are some in '92 that I liked, and one in early '93 featuring these four that I thought was outstanding, but their '91 series can suck it. They aren't bad matches, and I think that's what makes them doubly frustrating. In fact, this one is pretty good, better than most of their matches so far, especially in the final few minutes when they start building toward a finish. Misawa's crawl-through-fire save of Kawada after the double powerbomb is the highlight of the match for me. The problem is that most Doc/Gordy matches are BORING matches. This one has all the excitement when they're working toward a finish, and none at all before that. 1991 has really brought my opinion down on both guys, which I'll admit is partially booking, because I'm tired of seeing them win against better teams. I'm still waiting to see what exactly Terry Gordy did to earn his spot in All Japan.
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That's a Dave point made on Wrestling Classics, so that is what I was basing it on. The biggest success was the Hogan/Piper vs Flair/Sid tag that headlined quite a few house shows. * Drew 5,000 (a sellout) in West Palm Beach on 2/18 * Drew 12,500 in Philly on 2/28 * Drew 10,000 in Boston on 2/29 * Drew 7,500 in Chicago on 3/7 * Drew 13,500 in Oakland on 3/15 (Matinee) * Drew 5,800 in San Diego on 3/15 (Evening) * Drew 11,500 in Philly on 3/20 * Drew 6,500 in Toronto on 3/22 * Drew 9,000 at MSG on 3/23 * Drew 8,600 in Sacramento on 3/28 (Matinee) * Drew 7,000 in Los Angeles on 3/28 (Evening) The match also headlined 9 other shows that Cawthon's site doesn't have attendance figures for. But that's a pretty impressive run. I only pulled shows where that was the headlining match, not others.
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I also think part of it is that it just took some time to catch on. The first three months of 1992 were to that point the hottest period for house shows in the history of the company. So maybe they were laying the groundwork here for a really hot period that lasted a few months and carried them into Wrestlemania.
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This would have gotten over huge. Maybe on occasion you could do fantasy booking on PWO. Just as a change of pace. I enjoy fantasy booking. I know some people hate it, but it's fun, especially when it's spread out over a long period of time. I'd be all for starting a folder here to let people go for it, but I know some people loathe it. I am sure there's a right and a wrong way to do it.
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Thanks guys. I had fun doing this, and this was a good show to tackle. Anyone who wants to check out Starrcade '89 should make sure they pick up the PPV version. Chad's match of the night pick is edited to nothing on the commercial version.
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I'll do the years I feel comfortable doing right now based on footage viewing in the last few years. 1990 - El Dandy vs Angel Azteca (EMLL, 06/01) 1991 - Keiji Muto vs Masa Chono (NJPW G-1 Climax, 08/11) Unless there's something better in December 1992 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai (AJW Dream Rush, 11/26) 1993 - Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW, 07/29) 1994 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW, 06/03) 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue (AJPW, 04/15) 1996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW, 12/06) Going off the top of my head based on old viewing for other years: 1969 - The Destroyer vs Giant Baba (JWA, 03/05) 1976 - Giant Baba vs Billy Robinson (AJPW, 07/24) 1977 - Harley Race vs Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 12/10) 1983 - MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana (EMLL, 09/23) 1984 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (AJPW, 05/22) 1985 - Chigusa Nagayo vs Devil Masami (AJW, 08/22) 1987 - El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas (WWA, 07/18) 1989 - Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat (NWA, 04/02) 2005 - Kenta Kobashi vs Minoru Suzuki (NOAH, 01/08) 2006 - Mistico & Negro Casas vs Averno & Mephisto (CMLL, 04/15) 2008 - Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness (ROH, 02/23)
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The shoot style question is tough for me to answer because I haven't watched as much 80s UWF as I'd like at this point, and also because I'm not really sure if the matwork he rolled out in title matches was something new or something that just continued in the lucha title match tradition. It seems like it would be an easier question to answer if we had some title matches from the 60s and 70s available. What's your take on that point?
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I think all of the supercards make it more difficult to completely move on, along with the increase in footage availability. As long as Wrestlemania is around, people will either remember or wonder about the very first one. Part of that is also that the promoter running things now is the same promoter running things then. Wrestling has changed quite a bit since 1984 when Vince started expansion, but there hasn't been a seismic shift on that level since then -- one that changes the technology people use to watch wrestling. WCW folding is probably the most significant thing to happen since that time, but I'm not sure that had the same impact as national expansion to accompany cable TV. Or maybe it did. I'm thinking out loud.
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There is a difference, yes. But sometimes people move from one category to the other. I understand people not being interested in lucha and not being likely to check out a bunch of prime El Dandy. I just wish he wasn't seen as a joke. At the very least, I just wish he was a guy like El Hijo del Santo where most people have a general idea that he is probably great, but just have never taken the time to check it out for themselves. That's better than El Dandy having a reputation of being like Outback Jack or Cheatum the Evil Midget. It seemed like an obvious troll, even if there may have been some truth in it. I was more focused on the comments than the post itself.