PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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This has done probably more for *my* wrestling-viewing than it has for Loss. And like Loss it's come at the expense of most everything else, including modern New Japan, the '80s lucha set, and other stuff I'd really like to see. I wouldn't trade it for anything (wrestling-related...you know what I mean) though. Before firing up the 1990 set my lucha knowledge was limited to When Worlds Collide and stuff I'd read on luchawiki and elsewhere, and my joshi knowledge was similar. Now I've seen almost all the major stuff from the first half of the '90s and can actually talk intelligently about both topics. I'm excited that I'm not even halfway through yet--sometimes I wish I was still reacting to things at the same time as everyone else, but I'd still rather have waited and started from the top. -
I saw that match years ago with the exact same expectations going in as Matt, with the exact same reaction coming out. One of the biggest train wrecks involving top-level, veteran workers in the history of wrestling.
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Cactus talks of the show of force he promised to show Tommy Dreamer, and then lets us in on his relaxation technique: tuning his TV to the soothing family entertainment of TBS. Cactus has seen a Jewish kid from Buffalo become a black man from Macon, a kid from New Hampshire become a Frenchman, and Mikey Whipwreck be unable to have a ten-word conversation. This goes on a little long but it's an interesting combination of humor and scariness on Jack's part.
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***** Match of the Decade. Cactus even yanks the tights on the winning cradle, just because he can. Then he doesn't want to continue the beatdown after the match, but Raven makes him do it anyway. Dreamer runs in and makes his point with a Cactus elbow on the concrete, but has to stick around and do his fans-bring-the-weapons shtick. He gets cut off by Raven quickly. I've liked a lot of this feud but this was a pretty underwhelming post-match angle, with Dreamer really looking like an idiot and Jack undermining everything he worked for during the match itself.
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"We're gonna put the U.S. title on ya, we're gonna go here, and then you're the #1 contender, so you're gonna get this World title shot, WELL, ALL THAT SHIT NEVER HAPPENED." My favorite line from this. Yeah, it's kayfabe-shattering to the core, but this is the one environment and the one point in time where that sort of thing could work. And Austin talking himself up as the "biggest potential superstar in wrestling" comes off as remarkably prescient now.
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Ah, the debut of the Darkest Timeline Hulk. A frosty reception for Hogan, but it's the first time he's actually sold or shown vulnerability in his entire WCW stint, so points for that, I guess. Hogan tells Okerlund and Hart to keep their mouths shut--oh, what a mature response from our hero. Hogan promises to rip his neck brace off and beat the Giant just like he beat his "father." Okerlund breaks the news that a restraining order has banned the Giant from the Rosemont Horizon. Hulk accuses a certain New York promoter's ego of getting "bigger than the wrestling business" and is "dying, choking on his own ego"--oh, the irony. Shaving the Hulk's moustache = spraypainting the Washington Monument or burning the American flag, brother. Cut to the Giant trying to barge into the arena with the monster truck. Zodiac sticking out of the top of the truck is a funny visual. This is where the one weakness of the Nitro set comes into play--no video wall. Hulk takes off for outside.
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Really good match, with Shawn making for a great FIP. He sells really well without this devolving into a self-indulgent Shawn Show. Diesel gets the hot tag, but falls victim to the Bulldog soon after for the first pinfall loss by a reigning WWF Champion in probably 20 years at this point. Then Mabel and Dean Douglas run in and the babyfaces are all destroyed. Classic Bill Watts angle that gave you some hope for his ill-fated stint in charge.
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Takada and Mutoh sit around on the mat with their thumbs up their asses for awhile, occasionally throwing kicks. Finally a few suplexes pop the crowd, and the turning point comes when Mutoh hits a dragon screw, buggering Takada's leg and setting up a figure four. Takada fights his way to the ropes once, but Mutoh no-sells an enzuigiri and locks him in another one, and in the ultimate indignity Takada has to tap out to a "fake" wrestling hold. AWFUL. Mutoh was in the midst of his best year since 1991 and in one match threw almost every bit of that goodwill out the window with a performance that was both clueless and totally phoned in. Meanwhile Takada finally demonstrates to me, personally, for the first time why so many other people in this community don't like him. This is an absolute dog performance by him as well--Mutoh misses a moonsault and Takada's best follow-up is to sit there picking his nose. His kicks looked uncharacteristically weak and he really didn't do anything at all until it came time to sell the leg at the end. Now, Lord knows 1995 has seen plenty other crap. And this match is certainly heated and the first battle over the figure four, at least, is well-done. But this was every bit as bad as the crap booking of the WCW Invasion, with a finish that's both badly done and something expressly designed by Choshu to stick it to UWFI. After how well WAR was generally booked in '93 and '94, that's not easily forgivable and is one of the first signs that Choshu may truly be losing his booking fastball, booking more for personal spite than for selling tickets. Well, the invasion wasn't sunk after this, as we know, and it ended up being a major influence on one of the pivotal American angles of the '90s. But that's no thanks to this shit show, which is not the year's worst match but with the possible exception of the Hogan-Vader strap match is the worst-worked big match involving big time top-quality workers.
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Cool to see this. PG-13 returned the favor and had a return match against the Gunns on Raw. The Gunns are managed by Downtown Bruno in a weird visual. Tekno Team 2000 run in for the finish, dressed in jeans rather than usual futuristic attire. They sucked, but I do remember them getting an incessant amount of coverage in the sheets and WWF Hotline throughout their developmental process, only for them to be saddled with a go-nowhere gimmick and disappear after about 2 months.
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Oh, what a contrast to the Foley segment we just saw. Shawn is such a shitty babyface promo and Vince is so awful with him. Shawn implies that he was a victim of statutory rape by one of his teachers. The Dean comes out and says little of note. Shawn makes fun of Douglas for using big words even though he didn't use any.
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From a pragmatic standpoint, I agree. My qualms about Foley being better at dramatic monologues than selling tickets is borne out where he outright says that he isn't going ot exact revenge on Tommy in front of ECW fans, he'll do it behind closed doors. That's cool and threatening at all, but...well, it's nitpicking, because this is still an awesome, legendary promo. "Is that all I stand for, Tommy? To sit in an arena where JT Smith lands headfirst on the concrete, and hears the fans say, 'You fucked up'? WELL, FUCK YOU. WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" Amen, Cactus. Nobody else in wrestling had his finger on the pulse of what was happening in wrestling, both corporate and independent, better than Mick at this time.
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Austin is out and instantly makes friends with the ECW crowd: "This place is a complete shithole ... World Championship Wrestling wouldn't take a shit in this building, much less book a goddamned wrestling match here." Austin speaks of whipping somebody's ass for perhaps the first but certainly not the last time. He does wish Sandman and Mikey well, since they got here by kicking ass instead of being a corporate buttkisser. He then delivers a patronizing greeting to Mikey in lieu of shaking hands. Highlights of the match follow of some pretty crazy spots involving a giant ladder. Sandman does a legdrop from the literal rafters of the arena, and both guys take some pretty ridiculous shots with the ladder. Mikey is about to put Sandman away but Woman sneaks in a shot with the cane, sending Mikey plummeting off the turnbuckle into the ladder and leading to another fluke Sandman pin. Mikey gets some revenge afterward. This nicely sets up a ladder match at the next ECW Arena show.
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Bischoff is acting like Hogan will die if he wrestles the Giant in his condition. Hogan doesn't see the Giant out, so as he heads to the back to find him, WHAM! Powder to the eyes from an old lady in the front row. The Taskmaster beats the shit out of Hogan and Hart with the cane and the Giant is out. Sullivan SHAVES OFF THE MOUSTACHE in a crazy scene. Then Zodiac whips out a pair of scissors(!) in a cute nod to history, but just stands over him like an idiot instead of actually following through. Angles like this are why I give credence to Sullivan's explanation of using the Dungeon of Doom as a way to appeal to Hulk before unleashing crazier follow-up angles. It's hard to imagine the Hogan of 1994 through summer of '95 agreeing to this.
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"Of course, this is just a television poll which is not legally binding. Unless Proposition 304 passes, and we all pray it will." --Kent Brockman
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Weird to watch this right after watching Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville from the last NXT show, as the stories and even the finish were sort of similar. I always thought the constant restarts were pretty nonsensical--since when can a wrestler have a match continue after he loses just because he asks? But Kid takes some requisite loony bumps and all the finishes are really good. Pity the best one--Kid trying a somersault off the top and Razor catching him with a power bomb(!)--was during the commercial break.
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There are a few clips of the Malenkos' NWA tag title tournament matches in here as well. Just a few months ago this would have seemed woefully out of place, but now WCW is going all-out to bring in some rather exciting young talent (Dean's not that young, but work with me here), and making room to have the Pure Sports Build stuff stand alongside the cartoony stuff in the main event. That wall of separation would continue long past the point of necessity, but right now it's working.
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Not too eager for this after hearing the intros--I guess they've totally junked the "Armstrong can't have anything to do with Cornette anymore" stip, and it's ridiculous to give this match away on television. Way more desperate than re-running the Four Faces of Fear. We can criticize Cornette for too much offense--personally I don't think he should be getting his ass kicked either, not after running such a hot angle with Landell earlier. Cornette is also so woefully out of shape at this point that it's distracting and a hindrance, even for a non-wrestler. It's a far cry from the Cornette who went 20 minutes with Mark Curtis as Kowabunga the Turtle. Pretty standard Militia beatdown on Bob and this feud is really out of steam.
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They're bringing back the Four Faces of Fear between Rich and Landell--a Tennessee chain match, a falls-count-anywhere match, a first-blood match, and a barbed wire match. It doesn't seem quite as desperate to me as it did to the others, since as El-P mentioned they ran this series once before. But the Rock 'n Rolls and Heavenly Bodies was a much longer-established rivalry, whereas here Landell has just turned babyface. Cornette takes a shot at religion in the process of running down Landell, much to Chip Kessler's disgust. He then offers up a bottle of booze so Landell can muster up the courage to face Rich! Yep, it's Lawler vs. Jake a year early, but Cornette's cutting this promo with a lot more venom and hatred than Lawler ever was in that program. That draws Landell out, but he's quickly overwhelmed by the Militia, and Cornette tops this off by pouring the beer down his throat.
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Santo has jumped back to CMLL, which seems like a badly needed shot in the arm for that promotion. They waste no time with matching him against his old rival. Santo keeps Casas off balance with his tricky headscissor takedowns, and this is being wrestled clean until Casas levels Santo in the face with several punches and stomps. Santo pays him back, but Casas sneaks in a power bomb into a scorpion deathlock to take the first fall. Then it breaks down when Casas tears at Santo's mask. Both guys go nuts on each other and an errant Casas elbow knocks out the referee. A new ref comes in right as Santo executes a sunset flip power bomb to the floor...and the ref rules that that's a martinete and disqualifies Santo. Santo ain't having that and gets in some more licks on Casas afterward--Negro doesn't much look like a winner. Hard to compare this to the other matches in the rivalry, as this is clearly Step 1 of a story. It's a teaser to make you want to see more, not a great match in and of itself, and on that front it succeeded.
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