dawho5
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Everything posted by dawho5
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Another cool dynamic in this fight. Shamrock is clearly the superior grappler and Flynn has an edge in striking. I liked Shamrock's going with the momentuum of submission attempts to stifle them when Flynn started to catch him. Seemed like Flynn was the junior guy in the match from the start, so I'll back garretta up on that point for sure. -
I really liked this. The dynamic was really spot-on. Takahashi as the disrespectful vet forcing Ishikawa to earn even the tiniest thing he got was awesome. Takahashi appears to have a significant weight advantage and uses it and his wrestling skills to stifle any kind of takedown attempts by Ishikawa and pretty much get his at will. Ishikawa is quicker on the mat and able to get himself into advantageous positions, but he isn't better enough on the mat to be able to hold the more powerful and experienced Takahashi long enough to get anything. Great stuff. The slaps were pretty brutal, the headbutts were great, but there was a story underneath all of that making it a lot better than just some brutal stiff shots. I could have done with more openness in the presentation (television-wise) on how many points each man started with, etc. for PWFG as a whole.
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This is amazing. Dutch plays up how dangerous things are and so does his dog! Even if that dog looks like it could rip DWB limb from limb, it is obviously not inclined to go anywhere near him out of fear. Dutch being disgusted by DWB and DWB not at all acknowledging it are awesome ways to play this. Segment of the show for sure.
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Loved Rude's performance. Jesse saying that he was going to be biased this time was kind of funny. Then he went back to the woman beater thing which needed to never start in the first place. Finish sucked, are we painting Nikita as a complete moron? I loved the backstage brawl stuff with the heel locker room ganging up on NIkita and the faces coming in for the save. Brian Pillman hogpiling on at the end was awesome!
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I liked the innovative ref bump as well. Never seen that one before. I wondered whether we would get the "babyface won with the chain being reversed" Memphis finish, but we didn't. I gotta wonder how many MSC main events ever had a real finish that didn't involve some sort of nonsense thing happening where the loser was absolved? Has to be in the single digits for both the 80s and 90s.
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Kinda iffy promo from Vader, but he intensity was there. No worse than Warrior on the stick. Harley was good, could have used more of him since Jesse was way off.
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I liked Gorilla's point early about Bret essentially giving up being champ given the rules of the ladder match. The match itself was actually more of a "Bret Hart" take on a ladder match to me. Less highspots, more working to the big ladder stuff. A little bit bare bones but the highspots were memorable, not the least for Shawn's bumping. The big cartoon bump after the pendulum move into the ladder in the corner was way over the top, especially given the nature of this match. I also liked Bret's selling of the damage that had been done to him as he didn't celebrate, just rolled out of the ring and staggered to the back. Not a classic match, but that may be due to the way ladder matches have been worked since. Made me wonder if the way Bret worked this match wasn't about what you would have gotten out of a NWA version of this match or something close.
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Did not see this at the time. It's almost like Vince 2 or more years later was just basically doing all the cool stuff that happened on Nitro when they were winning, but with even more of an edge to it. You can see the influence Nitro had on the Attitude era in segments like this. I dug this a lot though, I had watched all 3 of their previous matches leading up to it in a row and they varied it up enough to make them all really good. Would have been nice if they had built Finlay up a bit and maybe had Regal go over somebody bigger a couple of weeks before starting this whole deal. Could have been something really special. What we did get was a really fun, super-stiff feud that should have gotten more attention at the time than it did.
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I found myself thinking this match would have gone over absolutely huge in Japan. You put this on a NJPW undercard, throw in a few bombs at the end and these two guys become mainstays because they get the style. As it is, it's just a rally, really good 20 minutes of ultra-snug violence for the sake of two guys who aren't supposed to like each other. Works for me.
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In a Kayfabe Commentaries DVD Kevin Sullivan lays out his plans for Goldberg after he took over in 2000. He wanted to build Sid into a monster that made Goldberg again when he beat Sid. Then 2 years down the road have Goldberg lose to a heel who would then be banned from TV because it was way too dangerous to have the guy on TV. Would have to wait for PPV to see whoever that was because to beat Goldberg you had to be a real monster. Seemed like a decent enough plan to me, but WCW wanted things done faster and went back to the team of Bischoff and Vince Russo. I think that a lot of the time the ending to those kind of deals ends up sucking because it wasn't really thought out from the beginning. The success of the streak takes enough people by surprise and they roll with it, hoping to just ride the wave. Then one day somebody says, "You know what, we should end the streak." And they come up with a good enough plan for it for the other guys in the room and it's over. Whereas if you started the thing with a goal in mind and kept your eye on when the right time to accomplish that goal was (maybe the DDP match for Goldie? Can't see the company getting behind a 38+ year old guy with that kind of deal though. They'd be saying no due to the chance of injury/retirement/whatever.) you might have some kind of chance at ending the thing properly because you would book the middle portion as if there was an end somewhere and have some kind of story attached. As it was, I'd say most streaks like that are just reactive and not overly planned. If you want to know what I mean go to the Daniel Bryan promo right after the RR where he says he should have been in the Rumble. Steph and HHH come out to ask him if he thinks that's what the fans really want to see and the entire arena at once screams "YES! YES! YES!" Are you seriously going to tell me that wasn't a litmus test? And that without it he would have had the run he did?
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I'll second X-O Manowar, East of West, Court of Owls and Cap by Ed Brubaker. I have yet to read any of the rest but completely agree on what I have. In fact, anything by Ed Brubaker (especially with Sean Phillips) is well worth your time. Great noir books.
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I actually really liked the Delano run on Hellblazer. It was less about the overall plot and more about defining who John Constantine was. Not that writers who came after didn't change that all up anyway. I was a fan though.
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I think one of the reasons there was never a union before is due to no solid alliances between more than a few wrestlers. Ever. Wrestling has always attracted some of the less trustworthy types of people. I'm sure there are that 25-30% of past rosters who may have been solid, reliable human beings that you could trust not to sell out, but what about the rest? You always have that talk about "the boys" and the great fraternization backstage. But do you think at least 60% of those guys wouldn't have sold their buddies out for the promise of a top spot or more money, etc.? I can't speak to how much that may have changed now, but back in the 80s/90s there was absolutely no way. Vince (or Bischoff, whoever really) would have heard rumblings and went to certain key people who would end up undoing the whole thing for promises of future rewards. You can't tell me promoters don't know who would sell their own grandmother for a better push/paycheck.
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I have loved this match for a while and watched it again today. Amazing stuff with headlocks as highspots (unbelievable at first, but the way they are applied is incredible. Lovedthe subtle heel work by Cortez and Grey getting more and more fired up as the match went on. Cortez's own anger later on when he gets a taste of his own medicine is perfect as a whiny heel move. I know the style may seem dated watching it now, but I think that the way these guys built this match and the way the intensity just kept building is absolutely incredible. If you are going to do a babyface vs. babyface match where things get more competitive as the match goes, this is a great blueprint. No real big theatrics, just two guys getting consistently more frustrated and upset with the other for different reasons. If the idea of a more pure, technical style of wrestling seems boring watch this match. This is how you make technical wrestling marketable.
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After watching a lot of those clips I have to say he had his good points. He definitely went out of his way to bump for some guys. Sometimes comedically over-the-top, but he was putting the effort in. Also when he was having stiff brawls with Finlay or Meng I could see some potential in him as a guy who came in for shots in a Southern territory in the 80s. Obviously he'd have needed to be more polished, but he had the intensity and the willingness to put his body on the line. I guess we don't really take into account that most of the wrestling we see on TV is done by guys with a TON of experience in the ring in front of fans. When you see a guy like Mongo learning as he goes and obviously struggling to keep up at points it drives that home. If he'd have come in after 5 years in the business I really think we'd be having a different conversation. As it is, I think all of us enjoy some of the more "wrestlecrap" moments now and again.
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You know what, now that I go back over some of it the Andy Diggle run ended really well on Hellblazer. That seemed like it should have been the ending for the character as a whole to me, as much as I love Constantine. The Books of Magic and Trenchcoat Brigade are must-reads if you like Constantine.
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Hellblazer is great, but I thought it went downhill after Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis. I thought the Delano arc was the best, with a lot more "see how cool Constantine is" stuff thrown in by later authors. Admittedly over some great story arcs, but the first run was the most consistent.
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