Loss
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At the very least, they could have given the Yellow Dog different entrance music. That's just lazy. Not really anything special as a match, but an interesting look at Austin in a long match with a game opponent. I'd rather see Pillman as Brian Pillman in this, because I think the heat would have been a little stronger. Austin worked his ass off in every match, but wasn't really great at building heat yet. Post-match, the Diamond Studd attacks Yellow Dog and unmasks him, but no one can see who it is. Tom Zenk makes the save. The bounty continues, but Barry Windham, who is now a babyface, is the one who put it on him. So is Windham still funding the bounty? Um … let's not talk about that, I guess. It also crossed my mind watching this how awesome Vince suspending Austin with Austin coming back under a mask would have been in the Attitude Era.
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Embry is out to complain right away about the deck being stacked against him. I guess the famous COUSIN HAROLD has been allowed into the match, and Eddie Marlin will be the special referee. Embry refuses to have the match like it's signed, and says either Marlin withdraws himself as referee, or Marlin can just fire him. Marlin ends up pulling himself from the match. Why even put him in in the first place? All this before the match. This looks like an expiration of time match we didn't get the first segment of, but the action here isn't as good as you would think. Dundee is worked over as FIP and they do a great job building to the hot tag, but Lawler messes up Dundee's roll spot by coming in too early, so the hot tag gets no pop. Weird.
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DWB talks about how he's been trying to get his life in order lately, and he's trying to do the right thing these days. He appreciate the support from the fans. He mentions that he's been living with Kimberly for four years and that he loves her, and he asks her to marry him. This is blatant piggybacking of Savage/Liz, but it's appropriately Memphis cheap, as he doesn't have a ring or anything (or even a shirt!), nor does he bother to get on his knee. He should have asked someone for advice on etiquette. We get a clip from MSC of Embry and Pritchard attacking DWB, while Tojo puts an abdominal claw on Paul Neighbors. They end up burying him in the Texas flag. Eddie Marlin and Bill Dundee finally make the save. Back in the studio, DWB suggests that he and Kimberly get a partner to take on Team Texas. DWG suggests the well-known COUSIN HAROLD. Embry is out to mock this immediately, and who can blame him? Embry suggests that he's some idiot from the sticks, and Kimberly says "I'll have you know he's from West Memphis, Arkansas!", which makes me laugh. DWB takes exception to Embry trash talking Kimberly and this sets off a brawl with Eddie Marlin making the save and throwing some great punches. Paul Neighbors even comes out to get in his shots on Tojo! Embry finally gets the advantage by finding a trash can and knocking DWB unconscious. This is great stuff. The babyfaces clear the scene before this can go any farther. I love Memphis wrestling, and this segment, but let's see Embry get some real comeuppance.
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I say it every year, but I love this Summerslam theme. FROM NUPTIALS TO NAPALM. We hear from Hogan and Warrior, which is about as annoying as it gets. In the Bret/Perfect announcement, Gene talks about Bret as "qualified" and as a guy known as a mechanic in the WWF, which is interesting. We also hear from DiBiase and Virgil, and we get some fan comments about the Savage/Liz wedding. In retrospect, this card was really well put together.
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So begins the build for one of the best WWF heel runs ever. Jake Roberts is the guest and promises Paul Bearer that he will share the secrets of the darkness with the Ultimate Warrior to help him combat the Undertaker. This is all dumb and overwrought but again, Paul Bearer is so in character and such a pro, and Jake is Jake. "Trust me" … those words will resonate for the rest of the year.
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This was a good match. But the whole match seemed to be building to tempers flaring and a big brawl which never happened. I had a real disconnect with this, I think because there wasn't as much emotion as you would think. This is the best Brazos match so far, and it's the first time this year that they feel like they're trying to work a strong match instead of just have fun. But I was hoping for more.
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So jdw said he was interested in when we would get tired of six-man tags in All Japan. I'm not really tired of them necessarily. But this does feel like a promotion treading water. Misawa broke through, and there was a lot of excitement surrounding that. And nothing really important has happened in the promotion since then. These six-mans don't feel like they're accomplishing anything at all in the big picture, even if I would disagree with anyone who said that the matches are indistinguishable. Misawa is where he is, and Kawada is where he is. Jumbo is where he is. And I know some things are coming in fall like Jumbo submitting that will be interesting. But the promotion already feels a bit stale. All of that said, this is another excellent match in the series. Kikuchi gets a lot of time to shine here and makes the most of it, and they seem to be heating up Jumbo vs Kawada as an issue, maybe in preparation for October. But the biggest difference between All Japan and New Japan to me is that there are far less New Japan matches that don't work to achieve some major point in the booking. There is occasional treading water, but not nearly as much compared to All Japan.
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This 30 minutes flew by! Every PWFG match so far has been outstanding. The streak continues here. It's worked similarly to Shamrock/Sano, with Suzuki coming up with bursts of offense before Sano re-takes control, but with Suzuki possibly even outworking Shamrock. He worked a dropkick and an incredible roundhouse kick into the match at one point and it didn't look out of place at all. I also thought Sano did a great job of putting Suzuki over as a really credible guy in this environment. I think Phil's review of this is spot on, so there's not really much I would add to it, except that this promotion seems to have really mastered all aspects of this style - both the small details and the big drama.
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If there is one thing 1991 All Japan brings in abundance, it's bland matwork from Doc and Gordy. I think this was better than previous versions of this match because Misawa and Kawada got a little more offense and the crowd heat was sustained, but it wasn't enough, and there's a sameness to all the matches in this feud. Gordy eats the fall to Misawa, which feels like a surprise even though Misawa won a singles match against him last month.
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New Japan has had better elimination matches, but this was a ton of fun, with lots of agile superheavyweights doing their thing with the top NJ natives of the time. Yoko moved around the ring and cut a quick pace in a way that was pretty awesome for a guy of his size. I was also pleasantly surprised at how good Vega looked as TNT.
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Vince accuses Slaughter & Co. of "terrorist activity". The match is made for Summerslam - Hogan & Warrior vs Slaughter, Adnan & Mustafa. Slaughter's disgust for Gene is great. Slaughter hasn't really done a promo in a while, so this felt fresh. The end of the Gulf War definitely means Slaughter's time on top is limited, though. There is a special announcement, though. There will be a special guest referee ... SID JUSTICE. Slaughter offers Sid a handshake, and I think about how awesome Sid would have been in military gear paired with Slaughter. Not sure if we missed his debut, or if this is his debut, but he's treated like everyone already knows who he is.
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Windham didn't seem as motivated as Luger here. I got the feeling Luger wanted to have a great match. If Windham had responded with a strong PPV main event-calibre performance, I think the match would have hit that level. That's not to say Luger outworked Windham. But I do think Luger tried harder than Windham.
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I really liked how this slowly built into a great match. A really big feeling slugfest with both guys looking great. Hashimoto is a better Sting than Sting. It's not as action-packed as the Sting series, but it has more of a Clash of the Titans feel, and the crowd is hanging on all the nearfalls in the last few minutes. The match started slow, but with Hashimoto matches, the key is to be patient. I kind of respect him for giving fans what they want when he's ready for them to have it, instead of just tossing out all of his crowd-pleasing spots right away. That's the sign of a worker.
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Someone dropped the ball here. The MD Athletic Commission strictly forbid any man vs woman athletic contests, so they did the angle early on with Murdoch and Slater to take Missy out. WHY WOULD THEY CLOSE THE SHOW WITH THIS? Until Russo, this is probably the lowest point in the history of the company.
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Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone's discussion of the main event (they were stalling while the crew struggled with the cage) was the best thing on the show. Keep in mind that Jim Ross was PASSING A KIDNEY STONE during this show. Anyway, this conversation should have happened on TV as part of the hype, because it hit on every point that I thought was worth making. Luger works hard and takes some big bumps in this, and Windham is game too, but the crowd just doesn't buy it. They want Flair, damnit, and nothing else matters. The crowd does eventually get into some of the nearfalls, and I do think this was a good match. Luger turns heel, which I don't think the crowd picks up on, when Harley Race shows up and distracts Barry Windham, leading to Luger winning by piledriver and taking the title. I don't know if a Luger turn was planned all along, or if this was just their attempt to salvage something from Flair's departure. Very strange that they wouldn't close the show with this.
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