PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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This stuff with Al Snow trying to get a meeting and a contract was dragged out for *way* too long, and it's a wonder that the upcoming KOTR disaster didn't sink him entirely. None of these Attitude Era fans know who Avatar or Aldo Montoya are.
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Okay-ish for a TV match in the era. X-Pac trying to steal a win during HHH's opening routine was nice to see, and for a bullshit finish it was fairly well-executed. Rock is starting to sound more like his familiar self.
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X-Pac and HHH are put against each other in the first round of the King of the Ring. The usual harmless DX goofiness but they do, to their credit, both put over the importance of winning the match.
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This was actually a good chop-down-the-tree finish and maybe the match is worth watching in full. Sting seems like a guy who should match up well with the Giant, and the finish here is pretty strong support for that theory. Giant powers out of the deathlock and kicks out of two death drops, but a death drop off the turnbuckle finally puts him down. Good heat for this, too.
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Bret headbutting the chair was the only highlight of this mess. Piper still knows how to sell but is otherwise possibly the worst wrestler in the world at this point. This is mostly heatless because at least 3 of these guys simply can no longer provide the action to back up their star power and charisma. I know I've harped on match quality mattering less in '98 than before, but this was a traditional wrestling crowd that popped for wrestling, and "We already have their money, brother" just wasn't going to work anymore. As soon as Hogan & co. start laying in feather-light shots the crowd just dies. Savage is buried hard on the way out, doing two straight submission jobs. One would think the Wolfpack hung him out to dry but I don't know if that was the planned storyline.
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I already said this, but it's officially ridiculous that Booker wasn't a main event babyface by the dawn of '99. For fuck's sake, he didn't even get the honor of being involved with Master P. Okay, staying positive: Finlay's leg work is incredible, as he runs through about 6 or 7 different leglock variations in the span of 45 seconds, some of which I've never seen before. Even the blown finish is forgivable--as Sleeze mentioned, it fits with Booker's hurt knee and instead of repeating the spot, they were pros enough to organically move to an alternative finish. I liked the Benoit match a bit better because it was more openly crowd-pleasing but this was still a worthy capper to the whole saga.
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They saved the best for last, didn't they? This was absolutely fantastic and easily the best WCW match so far this year. Booker really feels like he could be main eventing within 6 months--maybe he'll always need someone to lead the way for him, but he can work underneath and at least with another pro in the ring, is great at timing his big crowd-pleasing comeback spots. I *loved* the near-fall off the dragon suplex--great that they saved that move for the final match and not remembering what the result was going in, they had me suckered in thinking that was the finish, but we had another 5 or so minutes to go after that. Another thing about not remembering the result was that I spent half of this match waiting for some bullshit gaga involving Bret and the NWO, but they're refreshingly a non-factor. I wasn't expecting this series to age that well, because of the elephant in the room and because Booker took some shit in the WCW Highway to Hell thread, but this exceeded my expectations.
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Man, Lawler is whiny here. He can't do any wrong with the studio audience, but I don't think Corey Macklin really earned Lawler's wrath for being skeptical of his chances. The stuff with Kane and Paul Bearer is much better. Corey is AGHAST at Lawler's treatment of Downtown Bruno and I can't say that I blame him. Re-dickiless, indeed.
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So here's your MOTY to this point and I don't know what else to add. This was like a standout episode of Columbo--I knew Kobashi was winning the belts here, but you got sucked into just *how* they were going to get there. Kobashi weathers a ton and has to sort of buy time with big bombs, but Kawada keeps himself strong because he seems to have or at least figure out over time, an answer for everything Kobashi tries. Kawada wrestles smart, and Kobashi wrestles with heart--the more I think about it, the less I care that they worked a Kawada knee injury in the first 10 minutes or so and then sort of forgot about it, because if anything it would detract from that contrast in approaches. Kobashi is rarely ever going to be Mr. Pragmatic, either in real life or in storyline. And speaking of mirror approaches, the unique sort of "stagger away from the opponent to throw them off and then clobber them" spot was used brilliantly by both guys and served as a sort of poetic capper to the match.
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Good call to run this angle in a hockey city like Buffalo. I'm not sure about the logic of Malenko forfeiting the title in order to get Jericho back in the ring, when it doesn't seem all that hard to get a Cruiserweight title shot in WCW.
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Bret gets to speak! He makes an overture to Chris Benoit to join the NWO--well, of course this is going to lead to nothing but it's refreshing to see some of the strong mid-card stuff get some interaction with the main eventers, at a time when the glass ceiling has never been more apparent. They're 7 for 7 on decent-to-good matches in this series, and this was pretty psychologically strong with good focus on Booker's knee. I don't know if he'll ever be a complete worker but at the very least he's a strong underneath babyface with great comebacks, and that can go a long way with a pro like Benoit. The finish is eh but it actually makes you want to see where this story is going next, which is no small feat after watching these guys wrestle each other 7 times in a few weeks.
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George Martin: "I have been given the dubious distinction of recognizing you..." HA! George is actually pretty damn good here. The constant cuts to the police surrounding the Undertaker work, and give this segment a bit of tension instead of just being a comedy bit--take note, WCW. This could have been an egofuck like half the segments on your show, but it isn't. There's some truly brilliant writing here--I don't know if we have to credit Russo or not, but it's hilarious and self-deprecating and gets the McMahon character over just a little bit more. And it doesn't descend into pseudo-shoot stuff either. In the end Austin is jumped by Mankind and Kane and this feels like the first Raw in awhile where Vince truly gets one over on Stone Cold. Remarkably, Vince hasn't lost any heat over being made to look like a fool every week. I get that not everyone is as good as Vince and can overcome that kind of booking, but it's food for thought in comparison to what we see with the Authority today and the NWO of this time.
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Best bits: the Ted Turner lookalike, and the Asian tourists putting on an abdominal stretch that would make Gorilla Monsoon proud. Someone who may or may not be Lita flashes the camera. DX and the WWF comes off as incredibly hot and mainstream here.
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Boy oh boy, I hope one of these presentations involves a Michael Landon Award. This almost instantaneously washed out the shitty taste of that horrible Nitro. Amazing what happens when you watch a promotion with just a little bit of focus to what it's doing. I'm amused by JR instantly smelling a trap while Michael Cole seems to take this entire thing at face value.
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Or it's a testament to the (lack of) tastes of people in Detroit. As a Buckeye fan I've bitten my tongue for 8.5 Yearbooks now regarding the state up North but after their reaction to this shitfest of a TV show I can refrain no longer. How did I, with no memory of this show at all aside from the opening with Rodman and Jericho reading the letter, know before the segment started that DDP would get jumped by the Black & White?
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