Loss
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Everything posted by Loss
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The Original Midnight Express and Fantastics had one in early '89. -
I just ordered all of this. It will be fun to go through it all, even if not all of it is yearbook-worthy.
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Recap of the Martel/Jake angle from the week before. Jake is visiting a doctor's office with his eyes covered. They show Jake getting eyedrops put in, which even under more pleasant circumstances always makes my eyes tear up if someone does it in my presence. This would be so hokey with anyone else doing this, but Jake just owns it. Martel issues a very obviously fake apology.
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I wasn't really sure what to expect from Takano, but this kept building heat and excitement and I eventually was really into it. It definitely felt like an important main event, and I thought Tenryu did a good job playing base for Takano's kicks and highspots. Tenryu's tope was one of the highlights for me, but Takano gave an excellent performance too. All the struggle to execute the powerbomb was terrific. This was a great match, which was a surprise, as I just expected it to be novel more than anything.
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Odds and ends '97 stuff. Seeking opinions, if anyone has them: Ueda Tribute on Samurai TV 01/01/98 (Pg 1919) Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Masakazu Fukuda (Ueda Tribute 12/23/97) Yoshihiro Taijiri & Minoru Fujita vs Shoji Nakamaki & Ryuji Yamakawa (Ueda Tribute 12/23/97) Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Satoshi Kojima (Ueda Tribute 12/23/97) Yuki Ishikawa & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone (Ueda Tribute 12/23/97) Ikki Kajiwara Memorial Comm 10/12/97 (Pg 1888) Tiger Mask I & Tiger Mask IV vs Tiger Mask II & Tiger Mask III (Ikki Kajiwara Memorial 10/12/97) Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (Ikki Kajiwara Memorial 10/12/97) Wrestle Dream Factory Samurai TV 09/10/97 (Pg 1950) Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Masaji Aoyagi (Wrestle Dream Factory 08/09/97)
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I love that the words EXCITING ANNOUNCER keep flashing on the screen in the bottom right hand corner. This was a really effective clash of styles all around, with Jarrett/Kabuki, Orton/Kabuki, Jarrett/Tenryu and Orton/Tenryu all working. Orton looks especially spry. I think he could have had another run in the Big Two. Jarrett fits in well with these guys because he upped the aggression. He and Orton were actually the stars of this match.
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Here we are at the finals, with Lawler still selling his neck injury. Babyface match with Idol promising to wrestle Lawler scientifically, which gets boos from the crowd. He offers Lawler time to rest, and Lawler is ready to just wrestle the match. Idol immediately cheapshots him after Lawler extends his hand. Idol beats the hell out of him, working over his sore neck. Lawler makes one of the best comebacks I have ever seen after taking a prolonged beating. It gets a huge pop and it's a sight to see. Lawler valiantly wins the tournament and title in what would be an iconic moment if the promotion was hotter at the time. Funk, Gilbert and Idol attack Lawler after the match with another spike piledriver, so Lawler has won the battle, but lost the war. Jeff Jarrett finally makes the save. This is some great stuff, and it's awesome that they heated up the crowd so much this late in the night. I thoroughly enjoyed this tournament.
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This is too one-sided to be a really good match, but it's a really fun spectacle. Funk brutalizes Lawler, who bumps all over the place for him. Funk goes on a rampage piledriving referees, ending with a Lawler piledriver to really make him the underdog going into the finals. Gilbert comes in to make an honorary three-count on Lawler, but Lawler keeps kicking out, and this wraps up with a big two-on-one attack and a pair of spike piledrivers. Lawler advances to the finals by DQ.
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Funk and Murdoch doing their thing. Fun spots here, including eye pokes, balance losing spots, boxing poses and headbutts on all fours. The slugfest outside the ring where Funk breaks the stairs is the highlight of this. Murdoch has obviously slipped from where he was a few years prior, but he still had some fight in him. Clever finish, with Funk tricking Murdoch into using the branding iron and getting DQd. I might be tempted to watch 30 discs of this tournament.
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Fun to see these two doing all sorts of interesting arm work. So much cool attention to detail, like Slater's quick attempts to break a hammerlock being countered by Lawler, and Lawler pointing to the ropes when Slater was using them for leverage in a pin attempt. I loved that they kept teasing a screwjob finish that didn't come. This was a very smart match and I always love the pin yourself finish. I think Matt D would really enjoy this. The best match so far.
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We're three for three. This on goes to the 10-minute time limit draw. The winner will be determined by flip of a coin, which is incredibly lame. I liked how they were doing actual wrestling exchanges, but tempers were flaring and the match kept threatening to boil over. This was a great way to keep interest in this feud, which was only beginning, as it was too early to settle anything between them. More of a tease of what they could do than a great match, but it showed a lot of promise.
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It's always fun to see how athletic Undertaker was prior to taking on the new gimmick. This was a really good, action-packed match. Maybe Lawler's best singles match of the year, not counting the really short Snowman specials. A clean finish would have been nice, but who's complaining? I'm liking this tournament so far.
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Another interesting glance at Kobashi and Ace as a team. They are the aggressors for most of this with Taue as FIP, which mildly surprised me. Ace also takes the fight to Jumbo just to make this even more strange. I don't know if it's a case of Kobashi just not taking nights off or Jumbo being in an unusually giving mood, but this is really, really one-sided. It starts to get more competitive toward the end, but Jumbo and Taue working even with Johnny Ace, even if Jumbo does pin Ace, is an odd sight. Fun match.
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All the gaijin get off the bus. Did two Johnny Aces get off the bus? The All Japan announcer does a tour on the bus, and Abdullah the Butcher is still sitting there. Abby complains that this bus needs bigger seats and he's speaking perfect English, which is just ... weird. He finally has enough of this and throws the camera out.
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This is a little more predictable, with the Nastys attacking the Steiners. The brawling looks really good, as Steiner gets thrown through a table that doesn't break and they throw some great punches. This is capped off by a pair of Nasty Boys and Steiners promos. The Nasty Boys' look is slightly different than the one they are more famous for.
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10. Master Blasters 9. Pillman & Zenk 8. Rotunda & Horner 7. Southern Boys 6. MX 5. Freebirds 4. Rock & Rolls 3. Nasty Boys 2. Flair & Arn 1. Steiners Champions: DOOM 10. Windham 9. Landell 8. JYD 7. Taylor 6. Pillman 5. Arn 4. Flair 3. Hansen 2. Sid 1. Luger Champion: STING 11 tag teams is impressive and would never happen in any promotion now.
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The show the contract signing from the UIC Pavillion in Chicago. The contract signing itself was surprisingly peaceful, but later in the night, Sting was facing a fake Black Scorpion and was attacked from behind by Sid, who hit him with a chair. This is capped off with a really strong Sid promo hyping Havoc.
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