PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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So begins the last true heel run of Ric Flair where he's actually over as such. Arn warns us to be careful what we wished for, with regard to a Horsemen reunion. Arn puts over Sting strongly while Pillman and Flair re-enact the tag and turn in a funny moment. An explanation for all this would have been nice, but instead it just feels like a big reset button has been pushed on things, just like in 1990. -
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Hogan didn't want the Giant to take the plunge, brother. Giant comes out and Schiavone and Heenan don't even attempt to explain what the hell is happening. The finish of course is one of the biggest clusterfucks in history. Jimmy Hart clobbers the referee to draw an intentional DQ, turns on Hogan, then Luger turns on Savage, which of course is missed because the YET-TAY is making his way to the ring to enact a scene right out of Wild Things. Three major turns on one show seems a LITTLE excessive and the Luger turn would be seemingly forgotten in a matter of weeks, but whatever. Heenan: "You will never see a pay-per-view like this again!" The most inarguable point the Brain has ever made.
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No, the angle makes no sense, for the reasons Loss stated. But goddamned if this isn't one of the most glorious moments of the year. I forgot just how good of a match this was before the angle, and how agonizingly long they teased us with the hot tag to Flair. Just some masterful work on the part of Sting and Arn, with some good contributions by Pillman and Flair being a tornado working the apron. And it seemed to blindside the fans, as they seem genuinely pissed at this turn of events and litter the ring with garbage for the first but certainly not last time. Okerlund: "This is one of the most despicable acts I've ever seen." You ain't seen nothing yet, Gene. It should also be noted that Tony Schiavone was absolutely fantastic for all of this. Arn knocking Sting into Pillman was a great nod to history and Schiavone was right on top of it, pointing out that that was a favorite tactic of Ole & Gene Anderson. And I love his reaction to the turn--"This is beyond sick, this is DEMENTED." 1995 is a horrible year for announcers but Tony is clearly the best working a national stage.
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I wish Benoit and Malenko had hit that power bomb/double-team thing they tried, but that little awkwardness aside this is a hell of a match. Malenko and Regal tearing it up together was awesome, and Benoit and Eaton provided a nice blend of scientific wrestling and big-move ass-kickery. Eaton's lost a step but still brings some awesomeness, like that backbreaker move that Parv loves so dearly and a sweet kneedrop off the top. Nicely done finish, too. I could probably watch these teams wrestle 50 times.
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Yeah, "promotion on fumes" sums this up. Even Cornette, who NEVER takes a promo off, seems tired and half-assing it here. I imagine he was completely burnt out at this point, and probably welcomed the easy, carefree life of writing for Vince McMahon. Did the Smoky Mountain fans literally BUY a midget? Is this legal? Okay, in the last segment I said the "Landell has no friends" storyline needed to move forward. I guess the phrase "Be careful what you wish for" applies. I feel like the poor put-upon soul at the end of a Rod Serling/O. Henry plot twist.
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Rich looks bad, and this is a cheap, unsatisfying screwjob finish (and not the "good" kind of unsatisfying). I love Mark Curtis and I love Cornette's booking but there are WAY too many easy, overdone distraction spots involving the both of them, where it's obvious that Curtis is turning his back because that's the Planned Spot. Landell is beaten down afterward, because he's still friendless. The point has been made--this story needs to move forward now.
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"Now what camera am I gonna have to look at in this rinky-dink promotion?!" Tracy smothers sticks up for SMW's production values as compared to the USWA's. Downtown Bruno is now aligned with Armstrong & Smothers. JC Ice plays Terry Funk in the following match, as he's taken out on the floor by Bob Armstrong and Steven Dunn (!). He comes back to clobber Armstrong with a hubcap, but it's not enough to save the titles as Smothers reclaims his Confederate flag and uses it on JC for the win. Okay match, good to see a solid studio bout on USWA TV again.
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This is supposed to be Razor vs. Yokozuna in a one-on-one non-title match, but Razor sees Owen with Yoko & Cornette and brings out the 1-2-3 Kid, and this turns into a tag match. I thought this was pretty bad, actually. WWF Tag Formula by Numbers and seemed like another instance of the Clique and non-Clique not being on the same page. Manny Garcia continues to be the absolute worst ring announcer of all-time--he cannot get through a single show without a major fuckup and here he announces the wrong team as the winners.
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Good match with basically no downtime and perfect execution throughout. If you're looking for a RWTL '93 psychological masterpiece, forget it, but there's horrific violence in virtually every frame and some truly uncomfortable looking chairshots (the stuff with the barbed wire baseball bat is positively tame by comparison, oddly enough). Loved Tanaka legdropping the bat as Kanemura brings it down on Matsunaga. And Hayabusa makes for a terrific babyface in peril.
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Kobashi busts out almost all of his big bombs right from the outset--it's Angle-y, yes, but it still makes sense within the context of the match and where Kobashi is in the pecking order. It makes sense for him to try to "steal" a quick win because he's the decided underdog. This goes 36 minutes when it probably could have been wrapped up in 30, and it starts to show by the end, so this isn't quite an all-time Triple Crown classic. But it's a hell of a match with Misawa memorably having to bust out the Tiger Driver '91, which in and of itself seems like a sign that Kobashi is ready to be a champion, but it just wasn't his night tonight.
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2005 NOAH was in a lot worse shape, as was Japanese wrestling in general, than 1995 All-Japan.
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Steroids were banned (without a script) in the US as part of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970.
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I'm not ready to proclaim Kawada the #1 Four Corner just yet, but if you're going to make that case then I'm not sure if there's a stronger match in his favor than this one. While I still like the AJPW main event style over New Japan, the big advantage NJPW had was its willingness to throw different styles at us--shootstyle, brawls, etc. With this, Kawada provides another example of the possibilities of using the AJPW Style with something else entirely--he had a bloody brawl with Taue in '91, and he has a shootstyle match here. Great stuff, and there isn't a single NJPW/UWFI Dome match that's a pimple on this one's rear end. Unfortunately, this match would end up being an outlier as far as All-Japan goes, and they'd only continue to keep themselves in their little bubble. Years later, but thinking of Names to Bring In...Bam Bam Bigelow was about to be released from his WWF contract and there was no perceptible rush by WCW to sign him. Now, granting that it's iffy how much Bam Bam had left in the tank to work the AJPW style, and granting that he worked one tour for Baba and apparently committed some sort of faux-pas and was not invited back as a result...if you want depth to spice up the mid and upper-midcards, he seems like a good bet to go after. Plus if you can land Vader as well, the promise of reforming the Vader/Bigelow tag team seems like it would be a hot ticket. And for a little changing of the course of wrestling history...Meltzer himself tossed around the idea of All-Japan as a potential landing spot for Steve Austin.
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Fun action, though it's probably for the best that this was in highlight form. Unbelievable bumps and moves by both guys, and Mikey getting knocked to the floor but using the rope as a lever to smack Sandman with the ladder is one of the spots of the year. Probably would have been a bigger clusterfuck in full. Sandman destroys the referee after the match, not appreciating Mikey taking him to the limit.
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They were trying to position all the top babyfaces as being in conflict with each other, because God knows it was the only way for there to be any intrigue in this feud with the Dungeon of Doom. Hogan butchers both a Bible verse and an FDR quote in the same breath. Hogan is whinier and more insecure now that he's in black, like an emo teenager, but isn't really committing to going all-in with this Dark Hogan gimmick.
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SULLIVAN, MY SON. THE INSURANCE PACKAGE HAS BEEN DELIVERED. FROM NORTH OF KATHMANDU, FROM THE HIMALAYAS AND THE NORTH FACE OF MOUNT EVEREST, THE SHERPA GUIDES HAVE GONE OUT, A THIRTEEN TON OF MICE(????). When Sullivan clipped the whiskers of the Rare White Bengal Tiger...something or other, but it has to do with Darkness. Sullivan in more lucid fashion explains that the Sherpa Guides have given Sullivan the YET-TAY. Giant cuts his first live promo that we see on the Yearbook, and it isn't bad, until his evil laugh at least.
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Another bad match, and another awful finish. Bret was trying to be diplomatic all throughout the contest with regard to Bulldog's new attitude, saying he disagreed with his new allegiances but didn't harbor the ill will toward him that he did to Owen. Then Davey Boy knocks his headset off and Bret snaps for no discernible reason, jumping Davey in the ring and causing a disqualification. Vince and JR are for some reason baffled at the decision. A really, really lame post-match brawl follows. So ends possibly the most depressing PPV in company history, even including the disastrous King of the Ring show. This featured no-shows by Shawn Michaels *and* the Undertaker and two horrid replacement matches (Yokozuna vs. Mabel?? Seriously?) and yet another bad performance by Diesel in the main event.
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Dok Hendrix is in some living room set-up playing wrestlers' entrance music on his keyboard, introducing this after the fact. Shawn definitely looks like hell. Bad match between two guys with absolutely zero chemistry. Dean attempts to make something of this toward the end, busting out a reverse flying bodypress and a nice dropkick, but Razor wins with an absolutely horrible finish.
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