cactus
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Everything posted by cactus
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This is my first look at Kris Statlander outside of AEW. Ashley Vox makes a lot of references to fishing for some reason. She even uses a fishing rod as a weapon. The first ten minutes felt like your typical directionless and sloppy weapons match, complete with mindless crowd brawling . The last five minutes are great however. After the neat superplex onto a stack of chairs spot, they starting to bring this one home with a compelling fishing stretch. They use the metal part of the turnbuckle as a weapon, as Statlander takes out her opponent's hand with it. After not being able to lock on her submission finish because of said damage, Vox then uses the metal hook to complete her submission and get the win. If this started off better, this could of been a MOTYC. ★★★ -
If you're someone who somehow hasn't seen Orange Cassidy before and what to get a solid grasp on his character before jumping into his higher-grade stuff, this wouldn't be a bad place to start. It's typical Cassidy stuff done in front of an adoring crowd. B Cool works as a solid enough opponent for Freshly Squeezed, playing the straight man. He breaks Cassidy's glasses before Cassidy reveals that he's got another pair safely tucked away in his pockets. I do wonder how much longevity Cassidy can get out of his act now that he's on weekly TV, but I always find his matches to be fun way to kill 10-15 minutes. ★★★
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The atmosphere they create surpasses Joe Vs Kobashi. The hype package, the entrances and the ring introductions are some of the best ever. They start the match with a tackle and a scrap and the room erupts. Starr is still able to work some of his technical stylings and it doesn't look a hair out of place. They take a tumble outside and they actually manage to pull off a convincing countout tease spot. The boxing segment worked exceptionally well, but I thought the match's cracks started to show when Starr started licking Delvin's blood from his hands. Starr is a tad of a hammy actor and they get a little bit too melodramatic and self-indulgent with the story telling. All of the hi-jinks with the referee and the belt were a bit too much for me. Despite all this, I was on edge of my seat, wanting to find out what would happen next. The ending comes out of nowhere and the crowd go ballistic. This is an excellent match, that could been a serious contender for one of the greatest matches ever if they just managed to put a lid on the over-dramatic and self-indulgent stuff. ★★★★½
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I'm still not entirely sure where I sit on when it comes to Orange Cassidy. I sometimes think he's too much and then I see a match like this and he completely wins me over. David Starr is playing this one straight and doesn't have time for Cassidy's lazy shtick. Cassidy tries to do his comedy spots and Starr roughhouses him with some seriously stiff shots, turning Cassidy into a blood orange. Starr belittles Cassidy for not treating wrestling with the respect it deserves, but when Starr fails to replicate Cassidy's famous no hand's kip-up, the tide changes. Starr has just proven that Cassidy is better than Starr at some things. What follows next are some of the most gripping hope spots I've seen in a long time, in an Orange Cassidy match of all places. This isn't as a spot-heavy as you would expect from a Beyond Wrestling match in 2018, but instead it offers you some sublime pro-wrestling storytelling. ★★★★
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I remember when I saw Fozzy at a festival I was at a few years back when he was still with WWE and I thought he was one of the greatest workers ever because plays the character of a washed-up rockstar so well (this was just after he started growing his hair and getting those godawful tattoos). Looking at how he's been the last few years, it's become evidently clear that he's not been playing a character. He's had coronavirus deniers and Donald Trump Jr. on his podcast recently, I'm not surprised he's an #AllLivesMatters guy. Guy isn't working at all.
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Lorcan and Gallagher decide that it's pointless to try and work a match rich with high spots if there's no one there, so they decided to do a match that wouldn't look out of place in Battlarts. After they reach a stalemate after a few minutes of grappling, Gallagher taunts Lorcan and he starts to dial up the intensity in a way that only Oney knows how. This goes just under ten minutes and has a cop-out finish, but it rules. The only time Tony Nese can get a reaction out of me is by interrupting this vicious match. ★★★¾
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Decided to watch my first episode in about two years as the idea of Riddle and Thatcher in the cage is too good to not watch. The cruiserweight opener was a fun spotfest that didn't outwear it's welcome. Maverick in addition to being an all-round great guy, is a great seller and actor too. Is his firing a complete work? Either way, it seems a tad distasteful. That whole Gargano segment was painful. His character is like the heel Seth Rollins character from 2015 yet somehow even more melodramatic. I didn't like the Keith Lee/Mia Yim video either. The 'audience' laughing along with it made it feel even more hokey than it was. Blackheart/Gonzalez was fun for what it was. Blackheart has an interesting look that I think will get over and that bump she took to the outside was nasty. Gonzalez worked well as a bigger heel, much better than someone like Nia Jax. Coming from someone who's not familiar from the product, I thought the interference was confusing and detracted from the match. Chelsea Green was a letdown as a mystery partner, but Charlotte looks like a big deal when she's down in NXT. Looking forward to the triple threat match at Takeover. Riddle/Thatcher felt different and there was some good stuff here, but it was hindered by too many WWEisms. The whole thing with Thatcher gushing out the fake blood felt over the top and it didn't go anywhere. The cage dive was cool, but it didn't fit in with the shoot style lite presentation they were going for.
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I'd like to hear him cover more ROH stuff too. Some of the stuff in the Double or Nothing review made me cringe. Brian Last going on how wrestling isn't meant to be fun, Corny whinging about how they wasted weapons on a women's match, it's starting to become too much for me. For every few good points he makes, he has to follow it up with a shit take.
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Considering how good both Michaels and Hart were during 1992, this was a massive disappointment. This was technically fine yet deathly dull. Michaels wasn't yet equipped with the skills to work a 25+ minute singles match just yet, as evident by his boring control segment where had Hart in a front facelock that felt like an eternity. I never felt like Shawn had a chance of winning this. There's a few cool moments in finishing stretch, but not enough to recommend this. ★★¾
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This is a coffin match, not a casket match. The difference being that you have to pin your opponent before you attempt to roll them into the coffin. Kamala's facial expressions are fantastic, he puts over his fear of the casket and makes this stick out from most of Undertaker's other matches versus other monster heels. This doesn't go long, but Kamala's performance and all the interferance from Paul Bearer, Harvey Wippleman and Kim Chee make this the most entertaining undercard match on the show. ★★¾
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This was the first time that the Survivor Series match felt like an afterthought. The crowd are still quiet after going wild in the Flair/Razor vs Savage/Perfect match. This really shows how weak the tag division looked at time. Beverly Brothers are crap, Money Inc. clearly don't have much left in the tank, The Nasty Boys aren't clicking with the audience and the Natural Disasters are doing the best with what they had to work with. There's not much to say about this. It goes 15 minutes, but all the eliminations happen in the last third of the match. Like most of the undercard matches on this show, it's fine. ★★
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Yokozuna's PPV debut and his first match against someone who's not a (complete) jobber. The commentators put over how massive Yoko is, but he's nowhere near as big as he would get in a few years. Virgil shows a lot of fire at the start of the match. Yokozuna cuts him by sitting on him when attempts a school boy. Yoko lands an awesome uranage and nails the Banzai for the win. This was a fun squash match where both guys played their roles well. ★★
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This whole storyline is quite hard to follow because a lot has changed since the last PPV. Warrior's out of the company, Savage dropped the world title to Flair, who then dropped it to Bret Hart. Perfect joins up with Savage, and Razor Ramon debuted and somehow joins forces with with Flair. Heenan is super pissed off at Perfect and it's one of his best colour performances ever. The crowd are invested into the Perfect turn. They seem happy that they can finally cheer for him after spending the past three years being a heel. He teases turning on his back on Savage. Ramon is making his PPV debut here and looks very good, he's great at playing the big bully. Flair and Savage have great chemistry together and it shines whenever they are both in the ring. This ends in a DQ after some referee shenanigans. Shit finish and questionable booking aside, this was a lot of fun. ★★★¾
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Martel has stolen some of Tatanka's feathers from his headdress and that's the reason they're fighting. After a hot start, Martel locks on a front facelock and the match starts to drag. Doink randomly comes down the aisle, but he doesn't do much apart from making some balloon animals. Tatanka's comeback makes him look like a million bucks. This was slightly better than their Wrestlemania match, at least Tatanka got a decisive finish. ★★
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Nailz cuts a laughably bad promo before this match. The action in the ring was better than I thought it would be, but there is no consistency on the rules of the match. Vince says it's a no holds barred match, but the referee starts a count when Nailz starts choking Bossman. They keep saying that whoever gets the nightstick first can legally use it, but Nailz faces no penalties when he uses it after Bossman pulls the weapon down first. I'm probably looking way too into this. This was a serviceable brawl with a hot crowd. Bossman wraps up his feud with Nailz, who's fired right after this show. ★★
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Owen Hart in the ring with the future Rikishi whilst Bobby Heenan commentates feels like we've entered some sort of time warp with three different generations are clashing with each other. It's good to see Owen again, but there's really not much to say about this one. Both teams are making their PPV debut, but this is the only PPV appearance High Energy would make before they would quietly disband in February 1993 after a year of beating jobbers on TV. Headshrinkers gain the clean win after leading a top rope dive. Fun fact: this was the second and last time High Energy would lose a televised match. ★★
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Yeah, this is Warrior's greatest performance. I still prefer his match with Savage from Wrestlemania VII more and his offence still looks like shit, but he actually makes an effort to sell here. Speaking of selling, I think Savage might be the greatest seller ever. Flair wacks his leg with a chair and Savage hobbles about and never takes another step without milking his bad leg. The added intrigue of Flair and Perfect claiming one of the faces will sell out and side with them kept everything interesting even if it was all a ruse. I thought the interference added to the match instead of hurting it, personally. ★★★¾
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I forgot how racist Kamala's character was until I saw this. That shit wouldn't fly today, that's for sure. Undertaker makes his way to ring standing on the back of a hearse. It's a neat entrance and he feels like a huge attraction, even just two years into his WWF run. This match was your standard 'Taker vs big man match. It's nowhere near as bad as his matches with Giant Gonzales or King King Bundy, mind. It's over within 3 and half minutes when Kamala's handler interferes. Kamala leaves Undertaker down after landing a few big splashes. Kamala had some great facial expressions when Undertaker sat up and chased him to the back. ★★
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Two former members of Demoliton slug it out under new personas. Crush has one of the most glorious mullets I've ever seen. It looks like they had big things planned for Crush, but he never reached his full potential. This goes five minutes and Crush wins the Cranium Crush Head Vice. It's a cool finisher, but this was a nothing match. ★★
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The Beverly Brothers continue to be the bane of my existence. Truth be told, this might just be their best match, but that's all because of the Natural Disasters. This isn't a technical classic by any means, but Earthquake continues to do his best with what he's working with. He's super charismatic and cleans house when he tagged in after a hot tag. He even hits a slick-looking belly to belly suplex. The crowd were super hot for Disasters, I felt like that the WWF could of done more with them by having them face better tag teams. ★★¼
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Martel's still a heel, but he's working face for this feud. He's been flirting with Sherri and she likes it, much to Michaels' displeasure. They put the effort into the presentation of this, with Rick Martel wearing a tennis outfit to the ring. Sherri is wearing a thong with assless chaps and Heenan drops a hilarious line about Sherri having a bad case of moths. Sherri added a stipulation to this match that neither man can hit each in the face. You think this would hurt the match, but these three make it work and craft a fun, campy match that full of fan service. Michaels and Martel do a spot where they try to pin each other by holding each other's trunks and end up exposing their arses to the audience. I love this more than most. I always enjoyed it when I was a kid, but I'm happy to say it holds up surprisingly well. ★★★½
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This is probably one of the most important matches in the history of the WWF, but not because of anything that happens in front of the cameras. Nailz, pissed off about his payday for this match allegedly attacks Vince McMahon at Survivor Series 1992 and is fired. During the steroid trail, Nailz testified against McMahon. Nailz was seen as a disgruntled ex-employee looking for revenge and this ended up being one of the key factors that had the case thrown out, saving McMahon from jail and saving the WWF from going under. If this match never happened, there would be no WWE today. How's that for a butterfly effect? Virgil cuts a poor promo before the match saying that he's going to win this one for Big Bossman, who Nailz attacked previously. Virgil's promo skills are bad, but he's better in the ring. The energy he brings to the opening exchanges makes it looks like Nailz knows what he's doing. Once Nailz takes control, this falls apart. He moves VERY slowly around the ring and I'm not sure if he's doing it because he's a shit worker or his trying to appear psychotic and failing. Nailz wins with a chokehold disguised as a sleeper. ★¼
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This was the match that ended Legion of Doom's first run in WWF. Hawk was off his head on pills and screws up the finish and Animal has to improvise. Hawk would leave the company not too long after this, leaving Animal on his own. Despite this, Hawk's performance here was solid. He sells the beating that Money Inc. lay on him quite well for his standards. This starts with a lot of stalling, which is expected for an opener from this time period. LOD are super charismatic and the crowd loves them, so the stalling and posturing never bored me. Hawk crashes and burns after a fail top rope clothesline attempt and Money Inc. take control. They do a neat spot where Dibiase and IRS keep illegally double-teaming Hawk by taking turns having him in sleeper hold. Animal gets the win with a powerslam and the crowd pops big for L.O.D. This was pretty good, given the circumstances. ★★¾