PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, & Yoshinari Ogawa (7/8) Because I couldn't go through '95 without getting a glimpse of EVIL KIKUCHI. He's even switched to evil black tights, though he eschewed the evil goatee. Sadly he seems pretty banged up and out of it by this point, so he doesn't do a ton and leaves the heavy lifting to his partners. The first half of this is all about setting up Kawada as a killer, as he chokes out Misawa and is basically treated almost as a no-selling monster heel from the way he carries himself and the urgency with which Kobashi and Akiyama take him on. After that it bogs down into a pretty through-the-motions tag, with a through-the-motions FIP segment on Akiyama and a through-the-motions finish with Misawa putting Ogawa away without a ton of trouble. One for AJPW completists, though I could get into Kikuchi & Ogawa as a ratfuck tag team. -
It wouldn't have changed much, since it was the pure Ronnie Garvin "win the title so he can drop it back to the champ" role, but Vader over Sid as WWF champ in late '96 is the pre-eminent instance for me.
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I'll just say that one of the very few post-2000 matches I really found myself getting emotionally invested in was Jeff's ladder match against the Undertaker on Raw. Jeff had me pretty much willing and praying for him to climb that thing and beat 'Taker. That has to count for something. I don't think I'd vote for Jeff but I actually could be persuaded. His level of psychology wasn't your Arn Anderson style in the least, but in terms of emotionally connecting with a crowd, I don't think it can be denied that he had something to that.
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This was quite the war, with a very shine-heat-comeback style layout across each fall. There have been previous AAA matches with greater babyface comebacks than this, but this was quite a performance by the rudos, and it's hard to complain about a match with this much blood, hate, violence, and mask-tearing. Fuerza getting mask turned around...I'm torn on that, actually. It's a well-done comedy spot, but I don't think it came at a good point in the match, as by that point this was all about a hate-filled war and asskicking rudos and I think things sort of retrogressed to be going back to stooge comedy. That said, it was certainly effective, and Fuerza creaming Tirantes with a big boot gets the biggest pop of the match.
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Fantastic match. Not as good as the Mascarita Sagrada matches, but Munequito is not far behind him and Espectrito as far as being a minis worker. His agility and quickness for such a fat little guy is impressive, and he's able to twist himself into all of the crazy submissions Espectrito cares to put him in. It's really Espectrito holding this together, as he comes off as a really smart worker in addition to being a master technician and bump machine. Tirantes interpreting the camel clutch as a chokehold and breaking it was a great spot that got awesome heat and had Dr. Morales practically ready to leap out of his announcer's desk--it felt like Munequito was wrestling against two guys here (three if you count Payaso Azul) but unlike some other matches, Tirantes established his role without smothering the match.
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Weird as fuck, and it's probably for the best that this is in highlight form. But gosh darnit, it's hard not to feel affection for this match with the crowd so into it and the youngsters so willing to bump like loons for the old guys' trademark offense. Backlund forcing Saturn into trying the short arm scissor/one-arm Gotch lift spot right in the middle of the finishing sequence doesn't say much for Bob's psychology expertise.
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"COME ON, BABY!" "THIS IS IT!" "AAAAH! AW, FUCK! SHIT!" "ASK HIM!" Jericho's Iron Mike Sharpe-esque vocalizations in Japan are always fun. Now, Jericho is *not* a guy I expect to drag a good match out of Ultimo at this point, or any other point pre-'98. And this starts off with the indy standoff spot that just hasn't aged well, no matter how cool it may have seemed at the time. That said...they ended up getting me into this. This is a match that you expect to go off the rails at any point, and aside from a couple of botches from Ultimo, it really doesn't. Jericho actually has some really well-timed dives and offense in general and I started biting on a bunch of the near-falls, particularly Dragon's la majistral cradle which was a really clever set-up. That said--this goes on WAY too long with, literally, probably ten 2.9-counts too many. I can see why people of the time would go nuts for it, and I in fact enjoyed this more than some other mid-'90s spotfests. Coming from Ultimo that is high praise indeed. Not one of the high-end junior matches of any year, but I can see it as a coming-out party for Jericho as a worker.
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It was damaged by the big earthquake in 2011, I don't know if that has anything to do with its current look or not.
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Hiromichi Fuyuki vs. Shiro Koshinaka, 7/7/95 These aren't exactly two guys I gush over the opportunity to see, and aside from a few interference spots and Fuyuki taking a bell to Shiro's head on the floor, this isn't a bloody interpromotional brawl either. But it is a very well laid-out match between two guys who know how to work a crowd. Fuyuki has finished his transformation into possibly the biggest slob in the history of wrestling, but can still move about--he's pretty much a Japanese indy Dusty Rhodes. Fuyuki has taped ribs which plays into some cool counters as well as the finishing stretch. Nothing that will change the world but a match that reflects well on both guys.
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That was cute. After the initial reversal, Alfonso declares that there is no instant replay in ECW, therefore the original decision stands after all. I question why the Gangstas would want to cost PE the tag titles right before a match against them at the ECW Arena, though.
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This was okay, with a hot third fall, but the first two falls didn't offer much. Muneco has a shitty rep but he's pretty fun here as the best possible babyface Doink or Bushwhacker, with a little more athletic cred than those guys. Fuerza does some great heeling and there's some good psychology surrounding the low blows and Octagon eventually paying him back. Once again Psicosis gets a submission on a major technico with the technico's own finisher, so his uber-push continues. Tirantes is now sporting a blond dye job and if the goal of that was to make him even more punch-able, then mission accomplished.
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I don't disagree, but I think the bar for "tag only" guys should be really, really high. A list of the 100 greatest pitchers is going to have some relievers on it...but not many. (And I wouldn't put Mariano Rivera in the top 20, either). I think I'll make room on my list for Kroffat, and for Ricky Morton. But as much as I liked the Can-Ams I can't see including Furnas, who was not just limited to tags but seemingly limited to tags with Dan Kroffat specifically.
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He also had more experience than Choshu. Age isn't quite a be-all and end-all but I think it's a much bigger deal there than, say, the West. I think in most of their 6-mans, Saito was intro'd after Choshu, and Japanese intros are a pretty strictly tiered (offense at being introduced before Fujinami in a tag was the angle that led to Choshu splitting off and forming his own Army, in fact.)
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Saito only worked one tour in All-Japan before going off to prison. I don't know what Patera is on about, but regardless of what happened at that Wisconsin McDonald's Saito did indeed have to serve time. It was intended for Choshu to feud with Tenryu to elevate Tenryu while Saito feuded with Jumbo. That, not the fact that he "couldn't keep up" with Choshu's style as Meltzer at least at one time reported, is why Jumbo was sort of left out in the cold for the most part during that feud.
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What good Furnas singles matches exist out there? Any at all? Kroffat has several good performances outside of the team setting. Despite being an obviously incredible physical specimen, I've never seen one out of Furnas.
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I think that was Kevin Dunn as the hapless patient coming out of Yankem's office. Yankem emerges and we get a zoom in on his bad teeth. What a completely idiotic use of a guy who should have been an instant asset or at least a useful piece.
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Jarrett's real entrance was so, so horrible--it's mind-boggling why they didn't switch themes at this point. This actually sounds like '90s country, so score one for whoever had their finger on the pulse who greenlighted this (Michael Hayes?). We would see this video again, and again, and again, and again on WWF programming for weeks on end.
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Sullivan has amassed Kamala for the Dungeon of Doom, as the Wizard rants about the rare white Bengal tiger. VADER TIME! WHAT REASON HAVE I BEEN BROUGHT, TO THIS DUNGEON, OF DOOM?? Sullivan announces the Roadkill Tour, a very cool concept that's above this material, where Vader would show up at random indy shows and trash two guys--he even made an appearance in the WMC studio, IIRC. Still, WCW is so, so horrible at this point. Even the worst of the early '90s generally had an undercard worth watching if only by accident.
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Well, aside from Kimberly being cute as a button, this was horrific. It's established that Dave is an idiot because he doesn't know what chateaubriand and some kind of exotic soup that even I--a food industry professional--can't pronounce. DDP lures Evad back out to the car with a threat about "rabbit stew," then assaults him with the help of some horrific sound effects that William Dozier wouldn't have allowed in a third-season Batman episode. A legendarily awful segment that I've never actually seen before.
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The action is whatever but inoffensive. PE sneaks in a win that settles absolutely nothing--I always heard that jobbing on your first night in was sort of a quasi-Paul E. policy. He did it a lot. Some incredibly feeble brawling after the match, before PE return to the ring to celebrate, and the ring quickly fills up with a swarm of dancing fans in a very cool scene that shows a strong point of difference with what was happening in the Big Two. Hey, was that Blue Meanie among the early party-crashers? As Gorilla Monsoon would say, "I hope they reinforced the ring for this one." Like them or not--and I sure as heck don't--PE somehow made a genuine emotional connection to the ECW fanbase. Huge "E-C-W" chant to close and I'm wondering why I haven't heard of this before--it feels like it should be one of those iconic ECW scenes like the thrown chairs or Sabu splattering on the guardrail.
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Oh good, more ranting from Shane Douglas. He says he'll stay in ECW if Gordon gets on his knees and asks him. Tod fires him instead. Douglas decks Gordon who takes some pretty intense punishment for a little non-wrestler. Douglas dispenses with Jim Molineaux, Dino Sendoff, and Donn E. Allen, but the fans' chants for 911 are answered. Douglas is chokeslammed out of ECW, and not a moment too early.
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Tod Gordon wants to make an example out of Bill Alfonso by having him officiate the Taipei Death Match. Axl gets in one punch on Ian's head, and Alfonso inspects a trickle of blood and orders the match stopped. More brilliance. Oh, here are Public Enemy and the Gangstas, and that draws Alfonso's attention and allows Gordon to sneak in and re-start the bout. BOO. I really, really wish they had the balls to go through with the match stoppage, because the heat for Fonzie's announcement was incredible. Instead we get some sub-Mr. Pogo barbarism and for all the talk of EXTREME and how they're the opposite of the circuses in the Big Two, Paul E. is exposed as pretty much the same sackless charlatan Vince and Bischoff were at this point.
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I have to say I'm totally still into this feud. I'm a sucker for any program that slowly draws more and more people into it, as this one has done with Richards, Beulah, Luna, and still more to come. Good action and easily the best use of a newspaper receptacle in a wrestling match that you'll ever see.