PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Pretty fun--I wish the ground work were half as compelling as the stand-up portions, but the strike exchanges were wonderfully stiff and heated. Maeda is pretty out of shape by this point but they manage to work around that. -
They still had a PPV match commitment to hype and an angle to continue, so I don't think they could just edit it off entirely. SuperBrawl was still a Watts show pretty much all the way. As for the WWF Presidency, I'm guessing a.) Watts wasn't interested in any role where he didn't have absolute power, and b.) bringing in Watts would have defeated the purpose of cutting costs, which is why Tunney was let go in the first place.
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Bert Prentice as a straight-laced announcer is pretty amusing. This is sort of closer to 1997 OMEGA in that this is almost a choreographed pretend-wrestling match, but it is interesting to see Jeff Hardy work as a dominant bullying heel, which isn't something he ever got to do too often. Shannon is raw but he does show some pretty great execution on his big spots, and puts Willow away with a primitive version of the YoshiTonic.
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Definitely the best segment of this feud so far. Hales gets in some real low blows while he has security restrain Lawler outside in the hallway--telling the people of Memphis who think Lawler's such a hero to ask his first wife, Bill Dundee, his two kids, Jerry Calhoun, and his second wife just what a "good guy" Lawler is. Then Hales declares that Stacy is "nothing but a two-bit--..." and Dave Brown cuts him off right there. That's enough to get Lawler to break through the human barricade and chase Hales out to the old familiar WMC parking lot. Macklin and DAVE BROWN run after him to prevent a piledriver on the asphalt, along with what look to be WMC bigwigs. Obviously the the best days of even 1990's Memphis are long gone but this was the closest PPW has come to recapturing them. I too hope there's something more to this feud past Giant Silva, who might not be any better as a worker than Giant Gonzalez.
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Footage after Raw, where Lawler is distracted by Jim Cornette and attacked by the Giant King, who weakly chokes him out and closes a door on him. Yeah, a real weak-sauce way of ending Lawler's career--a far cry from getting heaved over ringside by Jos LeDuc or getting dumped off the bleachers by Bill Dundee. This angle was lessened for me because I pretty much saw the fakeout coming--almost no wrestler who appears in a sling or a cast ever actually needs one. Hales declares that he doesn't feel sorry for Lawler, because he started the whole thing--clearly, Jerry screwed Jerry. Lawler gets out of the wheelchair and we end up seeing way more of Randy Hales than any of us ever wanted to.
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Arn puts Dean and the Horsemen supporters in their place--describing the nature of the commitment to being a Horseman and contrasting who he was with who he is, as symbolized by the giant scar running down the back of his neck. Truly a spellbinding segment and one of the best promos of the year.
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Yeah, the NAO definitely seemed to have peaked with the Mankind/Charlie feud. There aren't really any other tag challengers for them with the LOD 2000 reinvention failing, so they drop the titles to two singles stars instead. Not a complaint, in some ways it's downright Crockett-esque. Speaking of old-school booking tactics that still work (as opposed to the old-school ones that don't work, like most of the stuff in the BATB main event), I love D'Lo's chest-protector gimmick.
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Highlights: - DDP springing to the top turnbuckle and coming off with a good-looking clothesline. Lowlights: - Everything else. A WMOTYC candidate, honestly. Rodman was a mess here and likely on something--Malone totally outworked him, as scary as that sounds. The layout as mentioned makes no sense. Even though I just praised his ability to lay out and work a simple match with a limited opponent like Goldberg, the bloom is really off Hogan as even a smart worker at this point. You simply cannot build a PPV main event in 1998 around rinky-dink bullshit like complaining about phantom hair pulls, double noggin knockers, ten-count turnbuckle rams, and other shit out of the 1986 WWF Tag Team Formula 101 Textbook. The only thing missing was Gorilla Monsoon there to yell, "Holy mackerel! It's pandemonium!" and other assorted cliches. What the hell happened to the people agenting the '97 BATB main event? Cheap-ass finish that was one step above a Fake Sting in terms of lack of creativity, and of course it's the goddamned Disciple who gets the heat for the win. Six days after the Georgia Dome WCW has gone right back to looking like a promotion on fumes.
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Best Stevie Ray match ever. I respect Chavo for playing this role to the hilt but it's just not over. Not only is it not the best gimmick for him, but he's been jobbed out for so long that he can't be perceived as really mattering. The WWF may have found a way to get him over without actually winning, but that's beyond WCW's capabilities at this point.
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This was some pretty compelling television even if it's the most Stone Cold-esque angle yet. They at least give Lawler some extra motivation by implying that it was Hales & the Giant King who drew first blood, so to speak. This felt like a breaking news story and I liked all the cutaways to various other parts of the studio.
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From the Terry Funk fakeout onward, they finally attempt to switch things up a bit instead of re-treading the same material. I'm mostly over Gertner but I did appreciate his heeling on the crowd by not going along with his own catchphrase. Jack Victory's attempted sneak attack on New Jack doesn't work this time, as Jack turns and catches him with the guitar as he runs in. Douglas goads Taz into invading the commentator's booth where he's jumped by Bam Bam Bigelow. Dreamer gets a measure of revenge by driving a chair and a barbed wire board into D-Von's head.
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I had that reaction to Mabel, too. WTF was that?? Angle-intensive main event that's barely a match, owing to it being inhuman for even Vince to be asking Mankind to work 2 days after KOTR. They cover for everyone's limitations nicely--Mankind doesn't have to take any bumps, and they keep the ring bathed in red light to cover for the fact that that isn't Kane.