WingedEagle
Members
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by WingedEagle
-
Armstrong announces a barbed wire cage match with Cornette barred from ringside at Fire on the Mountain. Cornette protests and the Fantastics counter with allowing him at ringside but Armstrong is the guest ref. Cornette throws a great hissy fit selling it, but I can't get into Armstrong as the territory's top babyface. -
Morton ducks a punch with chain and rolls up Gilbert to win Unified title. Afterwards Gilbert handcuffs Morton to ropes and destroys Paul Morton with a chain & piledriver. Lawler & Jarrett save and Gilbert bails. Definitely a hot angle. Eddie Marlin fines Gilbert $5K, and he dismisses that as nothing before Morton attacks him during a squash vs. Tony Falk.
-
-
-
-
-
This really didn't do much for me. They clearly work well together but it felt pretty slow and basic. The 2nd fall had a couple nice dives and a neat submission finish. Didn't love the finish in the 3rd though. **3/4
-
Everyone worked hard here to make Ace look like he belongs, but only with so much success. Loved Hansen brutalizing Kobashi with the chair outside and seeing this take place almost a year before their classic with its spots on the floors. I didn't expect this finish given that Ace & Kobashi were involved, but it makes sense given the booking and what would happen next month. ***1/4
-
Han throws Kopylov down and secures a leg lock, which leads to a great counter out of it and Han quickly back working for it again. Great struggle here on the ground. Han with a great, seamless transition from armlock to choke and even sells how close it is when Kopylov gets to the ropes. Han in with spinning backfist, kicks and punch for knockdown. Han with jumping takedown into leglock that they roll for control of before Han is back up with more offense and another knockdown. After Han dominated much of the way with his offense, we get the surprising finish of Kopylov taking him down and finishing with an ankle lock for a big upset. ***1/2
-
-
Agree on keeping Shawn/Austin at KOTR, though at over 20 minutes, you could probably JIP if it means keeping additional Hart/HBK/Austin promos from that time, which are probably more memorable and a bigger part of looking back on that era.
-
To chime in on a few of the matches being debated: -- I'd opt for the finish of Hart/Taker at Summerslam as the angle is key and the match is probably way too long given the constraints on the set. -- Unless upon rewatch the announcing is an all time type of deal, I'm not sure the Hogan/Rodman tag needs to be included beyond the entrance or finish. -- I remember watching War Games live on PPV and subsequently on tape and beyond the Henning turn it was probably the worst up to that point.
-
I had completely forgotten about Vader's steaming headgear. Vader with big forearms to start. Vader with great bumping and selling for Sting's comebacks, taking a back suplex & lariat over the top. At least for me, Vader was the perfect opponent for Sting more than the other way around. He managed to look like a monster even while selling Sting's offense. Loved the clean finish with Sting blading himself after missing the splash in the corner and eating Vader's power bomb. Strange to think such a dominating and clean win for a monster heel was just geared for a transition, but I guess that's Watts. ****1/4
-
Austin is noticeably more aggressive and wrestling with a purpose here as compared with earlier in the year. As good as he looked, Dustin's work here also stood out and its a shame he never got a true main event run. Dustin reverses a tombstone on Rude (used pretty liberally already on this card) and Austin breaks up near fall. Kudos to Rude for trying a top rope dropkick even if it didn't look amazing. Rhodes gets the pin with top rope lariat to Austin. ***1/4
-
Watts gives an interview explaining that the top rope rule doesn't apply in NWA title matches. Nerd city but cool to see tag titles portrayed as a big deal. Liger/Pillman feel like a legit dream team of the era. They use their speed to work over Nikita with quick tags as he surprisingly serves as a good base for them, and this somehow almost feels like a NJ juniors tag -- no small feat given who's involved. Liger moonsaults Steamboat for near fall early on that gets crowd going and follows with a tombstone for another near fall. Steamboat counters headlock with back suplex and hot tag to Nikita, who doesn't sell the arm. Loved Pillman countering Steamboat's attempt to tag out of a headlock with a back suplex. Ross also had a great call on the move. Really fun match that could've gone a number of different ways. ***3/4
-
-
-
After the intros we skip ahead to Kikuchi getting worked over before a hot tag to Kobashi, who proceeds to sell his knee as they're both up to selling and playing a great FIP here. Kobashi hits a moonsault but can't move on his bum knee. Pretty basic FIP formula throughout that was very well executed. Fuchi is such a great heel. In empty arenas I might just prefer this to the Furnas/Kroffat tag but tough to go that far when you factor in the crowds. ****
-
-
-
-
We start with clips of the MSC match, with near falls before Gilbert uses a chain and interference for the pin. Would've been nice to have this in full, but can say that about most every big match at the Coliseum. We then go to a studio match, where the psychology seemed a bit off with Morton working on top much of the way. Gilbert asks for 5 more minutes after the time limit and Morton proceeds to quickly wrap him in a small package, though Gilbert keeps title b/c of a contract technicality. They handled that pretty well. Eddie Marlin gives Morton a return match and lets him pick the stip -- Morton picks his dad Paul Morton as ref, and Gilbert flips out. Fun stuff. **1/4
-
-
I liked this a lot, especially as a contrast to some of the gogo AJW matches. Lots of stiffness here -- elbows, kicks, with Kansai playing the role of monster pretty damn well. She's a pretty mobile monster though, wiping herself out on a tope. Oz back to working the arm with Kansai doing a *fantastic* job selling. She counters it with a neat toss to finally break the hold, which didn't feel at all like a slow rest spot. DK catches Oz in a dive and hits a piledriver on floor to surprisingly little reaction. Lots of good countering which is presumably part of a backstory I'm not familiar with. Kansai goes for splash mountain, and Oz counters into roll up for what feels like a pretty big upset. ***3/4
-