PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Even if the Steiners were past it, and there's no question that they were, this turn deserved more than a standard "swerve" type turn with a few token weeks of build-up. Plus, that build to the turn had really nothing to do with the NWO at all, just Scott being a glory hound. Meltzer is correct that brother vs. brother feuds generally don't work--Bret vs. Owen was an exception because so much thought was put into making that storyline as believable as possible. This is just generic, though it certainly would end up being a boon to Scott's career. -
Man...while watching I thought, "DDP is carrying this!", but maybe it was in fact a case of Benoit dumbing things down. He does provide a lot of chinlockery and stalling here, which you don't normally expect and which even Schiavone sort of calls him out on. In any event, DDP comes out of this looking better from both a storyline and a workrate-centric standpoint. Whether it's laid out to his particular tastes or not, Page works his ass off going along with Benoit's suplexes, providing a few nice ones of his own, and providing a terrifically well-timed kickout on the rolling Germans. His punches looked great, too. At the moment this may be the #2 American MOTY behind the Casket Match. Also, they're starting to hammer the "best wrestler not to have a title" talking point for Benoit. I can just see some WCW brass and even modern-day WWE brass seeing that as a great way to get somebody over and thinking that putting a title on him would "hurt" that.
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1.) Terry Funk 2.) Jumbo Tsuruta 3.) Jushin Liger 4.) Stan Hansen 5.) Toshiaki Kawada 6.) Mitsuharu Misawa 7.) Ric Flair 8.) El Dandy 9.) Tatsumi Fujinami 10.) El Hijo del Santo 11.) Billy Robinson 12.) Genichiro Tenryu 13.) Kenta Kobashi 14.) Shinya Hashimoto 15.) Nick Bockwinkel 16.) Jerry Lawler 17.) Daniel Bryan 18.) Vader 19.) Rey Mysterio Jr. 20.) Bull Nakano 21.) Jack Brisco 22.) The Destroyer 23.) Steve Austin 24.) Riki Choshu 25.) Bret Hart 26.) Eddie Guerrero 27.) Verne Gagne 28.) Buddy Rose 29.) Jaguar Yokota 30.) Yoshiaki Fujiwara 31.) Aja Kong 32.) Harley Race 33.) Pat O’Connor 34.) Randy Savage 35.) Dynamite Kansai 36.) Giant Baba 37.) Negro Casas 38.) Ricky Morton 39.) Ricky Steamboat 40.) Chris Benoit 41.) Chavo Guerrero Sr. 42.) Mayumi Ozaki 43.) Kiyoshi Tamura 44.) Mick Foley 45.) Barry Windham 46.) Jim Breaks 47.) Manami Toyota 48.) William Regal 49.) Johnny Saint 50.) Shinjiro Otani 51.) Tully Blanchard 52.) John Cena 53.) Lou Thesz 54.) Clive Myers 55.) Volk Han 56.) Wahoo McDaniel 57.) Hiroshi Hase 58.) El Satanico 59.) Shinobu Kandori 60.) Steve Grey 61.) Brock Lesnar 62.) Psicosis 63.) Bobby Eaton 64.) Akira Hokuto 65.) Arn Anderson 66.) Greg Valentine 67.) Dick Murdoch 68.) Dory Funk, Jr. 69.) Shawn Michaels 70.) Hayabusa 71.) Bob Backlund 72.) Ivan Koloff 73.) Jun Akiyama 74.) El Samurai 75.) Marty Jones 76.) Cesaro 77.) Masato Tanaka 78.) Nobuhiko Takada 79.) Pat Patterson 80.) Ron Garvin 81.) Rick Martel 82.) CM Punk 83.) Solar 84.) Dan Kroffat 85.) Tommy Rogers 86.) Tracy Smothers 87.) Naoki Sano 88.) Kurt Angle 89.) Steve Veidor 90.) TAKA Michinoku 91.) 2 Cold Scorpio 92.) Dustin Rhodes 93.) Dos Caras 94.) Masanobu Fuchi 95.) Samoa Joe 96.) Fit Finlay 97.) Brian Pillman 98.) Butch Reed 99.) Bill Dundee 100.) Gran Hamada
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Juvie *did* have that Latin Lover/Hector Garza type appeal, but I don't think that thought process was in Bischoff's mind when he came up with this brilliant plan to give a couple weeks' build to a mask match. This has some awkward moments before the false finish, though the post-450 stuff is all very good. Jericho is such a breath of fresh air to this division--Pure Sports Build stuff is cool and all but if you have *one* guy who's an unabashed douchebag in the division, he can stand out all the more. He's like Norio Honaga with more (or any) athleticism. The spot with Jericho refusing to take the belt off until he sustains a kick sending it into his gut, and his wheezing sell while begging Mickey Jay to take the belt off him, was laugh-out-loud funny.
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A really good opening bout, sadly Martel's last significant match (he'd have one comeback bout against Stevie Ray in the summer and that would be it). Both guys are over--shockingly so, I'd say, especially Martel. Rick provides some focus on Booker's back to set up the Quebec Crab to give this a bit of a psychological thread, which is just one of the major points of difference between him and Saturn. The Saturn match starts off hot but for me it went way too long--and for the crowd as well, as they started off hot but burned out badly by the time we hit the finish, as the moves started getting sloppier and spots started to get repeated. Booker isn't a ring general either but it should have been clear watching this that they had a potential star--he had a star look, he had some great crowd-pleasing spots, he could talk, and not to get too patronizing but he also catered to a major demographic that WCW was often prone to ignoring.
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Even by ECW's standards, Dreamer and Credible going into a coma so Beulah, Bass, and Jason can do their little sideshow act, only to come to as soon as they're done, looks horribly contrived. And why not re-do the Big Bubba angle here and have Bass no-sell the weapon shot? Anyway, Dreamer wraps himself in barbed wire and hits a splash off the top. RVD does a run-in to continue the feud that will not die, wrapping barbed wire around Dreamer's head. Credible prepares to hit That's Incredible and Beulah comes in, and that ends in the same predictable way as every other time Beulah attempts to protect Dreamer. Dreamer comes to and goes after Credible with barbed wire, but Jim Molineaux recovers and...stops the match? Oh, give me a fucking BREAK. The goddamned Maryland State Athletic Commission wouldn't have stopped this. How bizarre that all of a sudden we're protecting a guy who practically defined himself by constantly losing the big one. Dreamer cuts Jason up with barbed wire as the ECW audience chants along to show how easily entertained they are. Having said that this was one of the most heatless ECW Arena main events or semi-main events you'll ever see. The RVD/Dreamer stuff is way past played out and Credible pretty much speaks for himself. To continue keeping track of this: more people give a fuck about him than they do Tommy Young, but probably less than there are who care about a Lex/Savage alliance.
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Still a little weird in retrospect for Rock's promos not to be so catchphrase-centric and the catchphrases he does use ("The best damn Intercontinental champion there ever was...") being different from normal. This is a hilarious angle where Rock gives Kama, D'Lo, and Mark Henry Rolexes and Faarooq a portrait of himself, much to Faarooq's bemusement.
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Really neat video package that sort of contradicts the previous standard WWF history--Hayes, not Cyndi Lauper, gets on-air credit for blending rock 'n wrestling. I like how they make sure to show a clip of Hayes using his boot as a weapon, too, considering how he tries to defend himself against Kane. As far as segments where Kane destroys people go I'm still partial to him tombstoning the Phoenix Suns gorilla mascot.
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This isn't a bad promo but it's pretty badly out of place in this environment--I mean, it's SUPPOSED to be out of place, but even by that standard this angle just doesn't work. To give a partial answer to my question closing Thunder, I'm guessing more people give a fuck about the Luger/Savage alliance than about the return of Tommy fucking Young.
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I don't remember this angle going anywhere, but the video itself is pretty great, putting Chyna over as DX's anchor as well as her athletic accomplishments while we get footage of her mauling people. Hard to believe she was once seen as a Jacqueline ripoff--WCW really had something in her but couldn't have put together a video like this to make a new star to save their lives.
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Are we seriously supposed to buy that Savage has been unconscious for TWO HOURS? By all accounts he should be dead, even by pro wrestling logic. Goofiness of Savage in a Sting mask and the weird commentary aside--clearly none of these three were clued in as to what to get over or what was going to happen in this segment--this is a pretty WCW-by-numbers finish as has seemingly been the case for the past 4 or 5 months of TV. WCW did a great job in '96 and '97 of building week-to-week suspense and creating mysteries, but who really gives a fuck if Lex Luger and Randy Savage are in cahoots?
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Yes, it's cool to see someone update the Road Warrior template for where wrestling had been in the '90s, and I wish the submission aspect of his work had been played up more. Hard to argue with that pop for the spear and jackhammer, though. Finlay goes all out to get this guy over huge, bumping like crazy and begging off, getting in virtually zero offense. But a fun squash nevertheless.
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Tenay is standing with Chris Jericho in a location where they never do interviews solely so they have an excuse to chase after a surprise NWO attack outside the arena on Savage & Luger. Well, points for having some sort of reason for a camera being there, but yeah, that intro was pretty emblematic of where WCW was going.
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Some good stuff here blending some disparate styles. The work was intense throughout but the pace wasn't blistering--I don't know much about ARSION but I'm cautiously optimistic that it can take up the mantle of early-'90s JWP in utilizing a more deliberate pace and a more mat-based focus as a point of difference from AJW. This was more of an appetizer match so I don't really expect it to be on a MOTY list, but it's definitely the best match of February for whatever that's worth.
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I don't know what you people are talking about, this left me PUMPED to see Bret Hart against some guy no one had ever heard of. Yeah, yeah, it's Crush, but calling him "Brian Adams" like we all know that name (well, we do, but you know what I mean) doesn't do him, the NWO, or Bret any favors.
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"Attica! Attica!" Yeah, that was a little more amusing the first time Nash did it, 2 years ago. His Hannibal Lecter impersonation is funnier and relates better to the storyline, but this angle is still, so, SO dumb. It's possible judging from the commentary that Tony Schiavone still doesn't know who the individual members of Public Enemy are.