Loss
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If the Choshu match made Chono look like someone who could pull off an upset, this match made Chono look like someone who could go toe-to-toe with anyone and put up a hell of a fight. This was a great match, and I love how Chono gave Hashimoto a taste of his own medicine every time Hashimoto tried something. He countered kicks with kicks of his own, and limb work with limb work of his own. By the last ten minutes, this really feels like anyone's match to win, and they both look gutsy and tough for surviving so much of the onslaught the other guy is throwing their way. And in addition to that, Chono was just reacting to Hashimoto's violence in the early stages and by the end, he was setting the tone. This was a really clever way to put him over, and it's something that I'm not sure anyone but Hashimoto could have pulled off. Muto definitely could not have. I suspect the Muto/Chono match will be a great match too, as that is the rep it has. But I really thought this was a great match within the context of the tournament, and I'll be surprised if their ability to get over key points both in the match itself and in the big picture will be surpassed in the final.
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Did Undertaker sell as much for Punk as he did Michaels and HHH? Just curious.
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This had a really hot start and then turned into a solid match. Fujinami dominated most of this, making Muto an underdog facing a veteran. He spends most of the match working over Muto's knee with some nice, basic stuff. Muto's repeated pin attempts leading into the finish were really great. It did make the victory seem a little flukish, but this G-1 so far seems to be all about making Muto and Chono stars, and the win is a big deal. I can accept the nature of the fluke, as it keeps the door open for rematches.
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Not watching the show, but I thought this was funny. Do they think they can be more friendly to advertisers if their audience is seen as more attractive? I didn't see the video, so I'm curious if the takeaway from everyone here was the same as Dave's takeaway.
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I think I liked this better than the Dome match. It didn't have the same big show feel, but then again, this isn't as big of a show. But this feels a little more hard fought and violent. Nogami takes a king-sized beating from Liger and fights back with a bloodied nose. Liger is his usual great self. I feel like I'm probably overrating this a little, but I liked how everything felt like a titanic struggle, and that even the opening matwork felt urgent and important. The juniors formula is in full effect here in terms of how the match is laid out at the beginning, but the execution of it is top notch, and I liked how they went back to the mat down the final stretch instead of doing a lot of big highspots and nearfalls. Liger is pretty peerless, and that's a testament to how great he is, but it also hurts his matches some during this time, as he just doesn't have opponents at his level to work with. He worked with very good workers, and I like Nogami, but he's no Liger. As a result, when Liger loses it just feels like Liger putting someone over instead of someone earning a win. So that hurts this a little. I think Liger was on an eternal quest to find a worthwhile rival, and I'm not sure he found the right guy until Otani.
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This took a while to get going, but turned into a good match. Kudos to Fujinami for taking some stiff shots to get the match over, but for the first half of this or so, that's about all he adds to this. Still, Vader projects the superstar aura so much more effectively at this point than Fujinami, and has really developed his offense into something awesome. I guess it's a case of a star on the way up against a star on the way down. Now down the final stretch it's a different story, as Fujinami's kickouts on pin attempts and teased comebacks are excellent. I don't like the fluke finish, but it's really the only way I would have bought Fujinami winning at this point, so I won't complain too much about that. Solid match.
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Masa Chono gets a big upset in a really good match, beating Choshu clean with the STF. Choshu really is the master of making a match seem important. He dominated most of this until Chono mustered a decisive comeback in the last few minutes, which made the victory resonate more, because it felt like Chono had really earned the win. Nice match.
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Tenryu and Yatsu are the principles, and I'm left wanting a singles match between the two. Glad there's one coming. Haku looks really good in this environment, between the athleticism and heel tactics. I wish he had worked Japan more. The Yatsu team heel tactics are really fun, considering that it's usually Tenryu with that attitude, so the tables are turned. Good match.
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I remember Bagwell painting himself brown causing a little stir at the time.
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Interesting role reversal here, as they've feuded for years, but now Eaton is the babyface and Morton is the heel. I was intrigued by how they would work this match. While Ricky Morton is quite possibly the best babyface of all time, he is a pretty great heel too, and seems to be having fun in the role. I like how Morton paces this, and Eaton mixing in his great offense with solid babyface work is impressive. This match is the best that either guy has looked all year. That ringpost shot was especially nasty. Taylor and Mr. Hughes run in for the DQ, but this is WCW, where matches don't have finishes. Robert Gibson makes the save with the chair, and I think about the awesome possibility of Morton/Lane vs Eaton/Gibson had Lane not departed. Good match!
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For the first fall, falls count anywhere. As you'd expect, they brawl all over the place - when that was still novel - and it doesn't take too long for the blood to start flowing. Both guys take some huge bumps. Cactus uses a fan's umbrella as a weapon in a funny moment. While the stuff they're doing could be argued as too much, it's really compelling. When they make their way back to the ring, Gilbert's selling and the image of his faced covered in blood gives weight to everything that has happened. Cactus takes the first fall by pinning Gilbert on the floor after a lariat from the apron. The second fall is a stretcher match. I get the logic in saving the cage for the end, but the idea of carting someone out in a stretcher, only for them to return and work a cage match, seems a little weird. I wonder if there is some other gimmick they could have done in this fall instead. All hope seems lost for Gilbert as he's taken a hell of a beating and seems to be barely maintaining consciousness. Cactus brings a large garbage can into this and does an elbow drop from the ring to the floor, but misses Gilbert and now Gilbert is back in control. He finds a bottle in the garbage can Cactus brought into the match and smacks it over his head in a great spot, which gets the crowd chanting for him. He ends up cutting his face up with shards of glass, which is crazy if that garbage can wasn't specifically gimmicked for this match (and probably crazy even if it was). Gilbert grabs the house mic and says he's going to kill Cactus and beats the hell out of him with a stool and probably some other plunder he finds around the ring as well. Cactus gets carted out and Gilbert wins the second fall. You all know how I feel about cutting promos during matches, but I liked it here for two reasons: one, because Cactus coming out right away to start the cage match would have been weird, so there needed to be some stalling, and two, because the crowd was starting to cheer Gilbert after his dominant showing in the second fall and he was able to turn them against him again. The third fall is a cage match. The biggest weakness of this fall is that they don't stay in the cage. Brawling outside a cage really defeats the purpose of a cage match, and it wasn't necessary when so much of the match had already been all over the arena. That aside, the fall was still really well worked, and they did eventually get back into the cage for the last several minutes to give the people a decisive conclusion. Well, definitive is probably a better word than decisive, as Doug Gilbert climbs the cage after a ref bump and handcuffs Cactus to the ropes and the match gets thrown out without a real finish. To do all that work and then not pay it off with a finish seems self-defeating, even if the work before the finish was excellent. Post-match, Bam Bam Bigelow makes the save and the Gilberts bail. This would be even more fondly remembered if it was pro shot. Matches like this are a little hurt by what followed them, but that shouldn't be too much of a factor here, as this was pretty trailblazing stuff. Gilbert's selling is what held the match together, and that important bit of detail is what was missing from some of the bigger brawls as the decade progressed. As it stands, it is very deserving of its reputation as one of the best matches of the year. Aside from the Mind Games match, this is quite possibly the best match Mick Foley ever had. Eddie Gilbert was a really great pro wrestler and pro wrestling mind, one who really mixed old and new school stuff in an effective way, one who was his own worst enemy in terms of finding work, and one who died long before his time.
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Cornette and Lane have made their way to Global. They announce Steve Cox as Stan Lane's partner, and the storyline is that Lane can't enter the tournament without a partner, so Cox, who they can't stand, is who they are stuck with as a partner. Cox pleads to "Do It To It", you might say, and try to work together. Lane tells him to follow the leader. We cut to the ring, and Cornette does a professional introduction of Stan Lane and treats Steve Cox like an afterthought in a funny moment. Cornette and Lane tell Cox to keep his eyes open and mouth shut. This is a cute angle.
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Johnny B. Badd purchased new earrings for Lady Blossom, and Austin has a problem with that. If I remember right, they were really pushing that Lady Blossom was Badd's fag hag. Gordon Solie talks about the vacant U.S. title, which will be decided in a one-night tournament at The Omni. Two thoughts on this: 1. It seems like waiting just a week and a half longer and building the Clash around this would have been a better idea. 2. The championship picture was a mess in the promotion at the time, with both the U.S. and World tag team titles vacant, and the World title just recently vacant. We close out with a clip of the Luger turn at the Bash that went over like a lead balloon, but Luger's promo is okay. These were tough times for WCW.
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A woman's car breaks down. She knocks on the door of a house, presumably to ask for assistance, only to see Leatherface sitting inside the house while old school horror music plays. I love how over the top this is, and the mildly grainy VQ adds to the aura of this. Soon, Leatherface is chasing this woman with his chainsaw. She tries in vain to start her car and manages to start it just in time to avoid the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface. I loved this just for how bad it was. Then, Danny Davis cuts an overly pandering babyface interview before the match about how honorable Bill Dundee is. Dundee tells him to take it down a notch and antagonizes him a little for fun. After two minutes or so of this, I want them to stop talking and just wrestle, but things slowly heat up, and both are really good. By the time this is over, Davis is listing all of the things about Dundee that annoy him, which is a funny left turn. The match isn't scheduled, but Eddie Marlin says he likes how they are handling this, and gets a referee out there. They stay on the mat, but everything they do looks really crisp and intense. This is a really great five minute match that ended indecisively, but I REALLY want more matches between them now.
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First, we get a very overly produced vignette of Jake working with Warrior to show him the darkside. Jake is great in this, but the WWF's immaculate production works against them, because this segment would have been much better if they shot it outside instead of on a soundstage, and maybe even if it looked a little cheaper. Jake repeats the "trust me" line and has Warrior lay down in the casket while we see flashes of the angle from a few months earlier. This is filmed like a horror movie and borders on Wrestlecrap, but is just okay enough to avoid that label. Later in the show, Hogan and Warrior are out for an interview. There's no continuity at all between this feud and the Jake vignette. This is Hogan and Warrior at their worst. Sid is out to shake hands with Hogan and Warrior, shakes their hands and raises their hands in the air, and holy moly that's a lot of steroids on that platform. Sid makes clear he's calling this down the middle. Sid hits my WWF pet peeve, because there is zero reason for him to be in wrestling gear.
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I was about to rant about this match airing after Arn has officially broken from the group and Windham has turned, but Jim Ross explains in commentary that this was taped before the Great American Bash. I'll accept that, especially given that this is a pretty good match. I always love the triple figure four spot, and it was rare during this time for a WCW match to have this much heat. The heels try to unmask the Yellow Dog again, but no dice.
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July: #1 - Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW 07/04/91) ****1/4 #2 - Naoki Sano vs Minoru Suzuki (PWFG 07/26/91) **** #3 - Vader vs Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 07/19/91) ***3/4 #4 - Ricky Morton vs Robert Gibson (WCW Great American Bash 07/14/91) ***3/4 #5 - Lightning Kid vs Jerry Lynn (GWF 07/13/91) ***1/2 #6 - Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow (NJPW 07/29/91) ***1/2 #7 - Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fuinami, Shinya Hashimoto, Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow, Samu, Great Kokina & TNT (NJPW 07/24/91) ***1/2 #8 - Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Jumbo Tsuruta, Masa Fuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 07/26/91) ***1/2 #9 - Los Brazos vs Eddy, Mando & Chavo Guerrero (CMLL 07/26/91) ***1/2 #10 - Lex Luger vs Barry Windham (WCW Great American Bash 07/14/91) *** #11 - Jeff Jarrett & Robert Fuller vs Bar Room Brawlers (USWA 07/29/91) *** #12 - Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid (NJPW 07/04/91) *** #13 - Ultimate Warrior vs Undertaker (WWF MSG Network 07/01/91) #14 - Sting, Lex Luger, Yellow Dog & El Gigante vs Barry Windham, Nikita Koloff, One Man Gang & Kevin Sullivan (WCW 07/03/91) #15 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 07/26/91) #16 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs Steve Williams & Terry Gordy (AJPW 07/24/91) #17 - Kazuo Yamazaki vs Billy Scott (UWFI 07/30/91) #18 - Steve Austin vs Bobby Eaton (WCW Power Hour 07/06/91) #19 - Steve Austin vs Yellow Dog (WCW Pro 07/27/91) #20 - Jerry Lawler vs Eric Embry (USWA 07/22/91)
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Even though this match was one of the shorter matches in this style so far, it seemed to drag at times. There were moments I liked, like Scott's really fired up, aggressive bursts of knees and palm strikes on Yamazaki, but moments like that were too rare. Scott's half crab where he walked his way back to the middle of the ring was way too Walls of Jericho for my tastes. This disappointed me.
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Plunder aplenty in this wild brawl, with all the guys involved wearing street clothes and throwing bar stools and chairs at anything that moves. Fun outing. Even though I really enjoyed this, I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was pro shot. Still, too many highlights to call this anything less than good. Very cool that they went all out on a house show.
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Very good match. I really like Vader and Bigelow as a team. They didn't really work a Southern tag, but they did work an American-style match in terms of having a strong babyface/heel structure. Vader and Bigelow are both great athletes, but still understand how to work like monsters, not always bumping on the first dropkick or clothesline. Muto and Chono as a comparison to Misawa and Kawada as a team in the same timeframe is something interesting I should think about. Vader and Bigelow are definitely better than Doc and Gordy. The crowd gets really into this and the last few minutes are especially great. I think I liked this more than the multi-man tag earlier in the month, even though both matches are good.
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We get a clip of Diamond Studd vs Yellow Dog from WCW Saturday Night. DDP eats a dropkick off the apron! Hall looks pretty green here, which is crazy considering how long he had been wrestling at this point. He unmasks the Dog, but Zenk runs into cover his face and save him. Paul E. is outraged by Pillman making a mockery of the rules, and the men who slaved over the rulebook in the early 1900s! Funny!
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The Steiners have been stripped of the WCW tag titles. Gordon Solie got some flack from fans for predicting this, so Solie pulls up the bylaws to make his point. He is acting like a PWO poster in his insistence on being right. A tournament is taking place for the vacant tag titles, with the Hardliners and Freebirds doing brief promos.
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Race has cut Luger off from all of his friends. Luger has eliminated all of the distractions in his life now that he is the WCW World champion. He's been in the driver's seat since Day 1, but now he has the support he needs. There is potential here as something really fresh on top, but we all know it didn't quite work out. They should have run Luger/Sting right away to give Luger a hot opponent out of the gate. I'm not sure where they would have gone after that, but waiting did no one any good.