PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Cringe-worthy moment of the year: Liger attempts to do the Jumbo Tsuruta drop-the-guy's-knee-on-the-guardrail spot, misses, and instead drops Sasuke's groin on it. Yeeowch. Yeah, this match-up is actually less interesting the more Sasuke is portrayed as an equal, as opposed to an underdog. Sasuke isn't as compelling working holds from the top as from the bottom, and then he blows off the cool legwork. Liger mostly holds this together, but at one point he drops Sasuke from the turnbuckle, levels him with a knee off the top that looks to knock him out, signals that he's going to drop Sasuke on his head again to put him away, and...puts on a crossface chicken wing. REALLY curious move there from one of the smarter workers around--were they seriously expecting people to buy that as a potential ending? Liger is no Mr. Backlund--he uses that hold as a matwork opener, not a finish. There was still good stuff here and the Sasuke victory took me by surprise, but the Super J-Cup match between these two is the one you want. -
Fantastic match and...well, we'll check out Survivor Series, but this should be at worst the #2 WWF match of the year. This is a great layout on top of a fantastic underneath performance by Shawn and a fine performance by Diesel as the confident dick. Loved the payback spots with the low blow, and the symmetry of both guys using bystanders' footwear as weapons. And the Jackknife through the table is of course an all-timer of a spot. There's also an almost odd shoot vibe running through this at times, with Diesel threatening before the show to swear on live TV and making threats towards McMahon--for two buddies that weren't always concerned with selling the company storylines, there's a great undercurrent of true visceral hate, from Shawn's stoic entrance to his downright angry victory celebration. This is the Shawn we needed to see as ace of the company--a resourceful tough guy willing to mix it up instead of a happy-go-lucky male stripper.
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Almost like a sprint version of the Uncensored match, faster and tighter. Regal CLOBBERS Finlay with a clothesline that knocks him off the apron--Stan Hansen woulda been proud of that one. Then Finlay takes a sick bump getting dropped on the guardrail, and chairs and plundah get involved and it's a double-DQ. Finlay punctuates this with a tombstone on the arena floor.
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The story here is that Zouev is effective for quick bursts--quick strikes, sudden takedowns--but Han owns him the longer things stay on the mat. Zouev gets a *yellow card*, which adds a point to his total, which I don't think I've seen in RINGS or any other shootstyle promotion. It's a cool, legit-looking gimmick, though. At the end they turn things on their head, as Han takes Zouev down but Zouev reverses into a form of twister to get an upset(?) tapout. Watching Han is always a treat, and this felt more fulfilling than the Yamamoto/Kohsaka match.
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I don't have a lot to add to this, other than it was fine.
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CM Punk last year was pretty similar, albeit it later in the match. He had been in there for fifty minutes or so and his elimination had no build or drama and was treated as a nonevent. He was eliminated by Kane in screwjob fashion. It was supposed to set up Punk-Kane at Wrestlemania. Bryan's elimination sets up nothing. They also had to "go home" with Punk early due to a concussion.
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World Commitment Wrestling! Start of the big GAB push as Flair hits on Debra McMichael sitting at ringside. Then Savage runs in again and again gets handcuffed and hauled out by security. The match is pretty standard but is helped greatly by a LOUD Albany, Georgia crowd. Compare and contrast with that JWP tag. Really cool moment as Giant locks Luger in a choke and Sting goes nuts with dives off the top to his knee, then with strikes to the arm, trying to get him to break it. Flair is apparently disqualified for hitting his own partner in the face with a cup of coffee, a finish lifted from the famous Thesz/Gotch tag bouts of yore. Giant turns into a quasi-babyface for the second time in a month.
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Vega looks good again in limited action. Steve Austin costs him the match by whacking him with the Million Dollar belt.
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It sounded like Savage even realized how weird that line sounded as he rather quickly shifted to talking about nights in jail. Pretty boilerplate promo--kind of disappointing considering the intensely personal nature of the feud. Savage could have been talking about anybody or any program.
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Douglas is pretty frisky for most of this, busting out two big dives to the floor. They brawl outside and back in, and then it's run-in city. Brian Lee! Dreamer! Meanie! Richards! A Bruise Brother! Raven clobbers Douglas with the loaded orthopedic boot to escape with the title. God help me but I liked this better than RVD/Sabu. The number of run-ins were excessive but at least they were well-timed, and it was a high-energy match. I just wish Styles, to repeat myself, would STOP FUCKING TELEGRAPHING ALL THE KICKOUTS. Douglas missed Brian Lee's interference and only saw Dreamer distracting the ref earlier, so he took Tommy out to cement the heel turn that everyone knew was coming. At least they didn't try to cover for or hide it--he was still the same Franchise the whole time. It barely even qualifies as a turn. Afterward, Douglas laments that the only belt that means anything to him is still in Raven's hands, which draws out Scorpio. Douglas tries to back off, then clobbers Scorp from behind and whips both him and Sandman with the TV belt. Good segue of an angle.
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Well, this was the main event of the first ECW TV show I taped off SportsChannel Ohio, and 1996 Pete thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen in wrestling. Now, it's sloppy as all hell with a few cool spots and Van Dam being Van Dam, without having established himself as a star yet. I'll never be able to truly dislike this but yeah, it definitely hasn't aged well. It is impressive how much heat they were able to get just for RVD blowing off a handshake.
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There are better studio matches on the Yearbooks but this is a very good one--I loved Lance's little breakdown of just why Lawler's punches are so effective. Very Mid-South-ian set-up here, with the "special TV time" and "standby matches." The finish isn't quite as Mid-South-ian but pure Memphis instead, as longtime referee Frank Morrell starts a heel turn by helping Jarrett regain the Unified title with a conveniently timed heart attack.
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Awesome highlights of the Bill Dundee vs. Randy Hales/Cyberpunks feud--Dundee brawls with Wolfie D in the locker room and then jumps Randy Hales and then Jesse James Armstrong with a chair for good measure. Then Samantha Pain comes out claiming a "bus load" of Dundee supporters is out in the parking lot protesting for Bill's return, but it's all a trap so Dundee can attack Hales again. Then wild clips from Louisville of Dundee vs. Cyberpunk Fire. The Cyberpunks get an ECW lights-out entrance into the studio and an Ole Anderson voicebox promo--silly, but this is carried off much better here than in WCW. Good on them for making a stronger effort than usual to conceal who the Cyberpunks are, even if everyone knows what's up.
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Takako, Ozaki, Kansai...so much raging bitch in one match. 'Course, Kyoko pretty much breaks the pattern, but oh well. This had a few hot stretches but was another joshi match that was too long and too clever by half. All the kickouts and saves got to be eye-rolling rather than taking me (and the crowd) to a fever pitch--it sort of made Kansai & Takako look stupid for not even trying to accomodate for Kyoko while they were killing Oz. The Splash Mountain/Takako Panic really should have been the finish. Instead they top it with *another* sick double-team, and Kyoko saves off THAT, and Ozaki rather anticlimactically goes down to a simple chop instead, though she was already pretty much doomed. Takako presents Ozaki with a pair of wrestling boots after the match, in what is undoubtedly the finest Hulk Hogan-Evad Sullivan tribute angle in the entire history of joshi.
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Doc hasn't missed a beat, or at least it doesn't seem like it here. Taue was the better worker of the two and really was the glue of this, but Williams put in a fine performance back in the spotlight. Both guys hit their big Moves of Death--the nodowa off the apron and the dangerous backdrop--and came back from the other, which really ramped up the drama factor. And Doc had beaten Misawa *and* Kawada in the round-robin stage so he was pushed hard from the start, which makes Taue's victory, the biggest of his career to this point, all the sweeter. Terrific match to wrap up the Carnival and possibly a dark-horse top-10 MOTY.
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Shorter than most of the early-'90s six-man classics, but this adequately takes its place amongst them. I dug Kawada heeling it up some, walking away from a confrontation with Jun and repeatedly kicking a downed Kobashi. Albright and Jun have some terrific sequences and exchanges. More great build to the full nelson suplex, and this time Albright hits it.
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I continue to be underwhelmed by this series. Actually I was secretly hoping, upon hearing the meathead members of the crowd yelling "bo-ring" 30 seconds in, that these guys would stay on the mat for the entire 20 minutes (I know before this even started it was going to a draw, which meant it had two strikes against it already). Also, nothing seemed like it had any consequence in this match--Scorpio takes a huracanrana through a table and a Frankensteiner off the turnbuckle and is the first guy up both times. The only real attempts at psychology are Scorpio's awesome superkick as a cutoff move and Sabu using a knee injury as an excuse to be late on covers.
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Santo's insane comeback on Felino after getting low-blowed is the definite highlight, as he drops him with an incredible huracanrana off the apron and then just beats the shit out of him on the floor. This is really good action, with Felino being all over the place and Satanico providing his usual awesomeness, though it ends rather anticlimactically.
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