PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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I think I remember reading that Grillo *was* going to be Malenko, before someone decided that was too obvious and they stuck the outfit on the real Ciclope.
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Back in time a bit to an earlier segment on the show. The Gangstas have tried to take over SMW, but the only things they've succeeded in doing is pissing (exact unbleeped words) Cornette & the Heavenly Bodies off. Oh, and New Jack looks like Aunt Jemima--WOW. One step forward, two steps back. Cornette reveals his surprise: Bob Armstrong is the guest referee for Sunday Bloody Sunday. Hell has indeed frozen over.
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The Infernos are introduced from the "Gates of Hell," which is a touch melodramatic for a generic masked jobber team. Ross: "My ex-wife was from near that area." Okay, that makes it worth it. Ross also takes a shot at WCW, so he's either extra-frisky or just slaphappy. This is a set-up for a Gangstas attack and save by Bob Armstrong and Cornette, with the payoff being a handshake between the two lifelong enemies.
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The "most expensive suit Buddy Landell owns" looks like something gotten off the discount rack at Jos. A. Bank, which is spectacular and oh so fitting. A great video recap of Landell's recent victories accompanies this promo. Ross tries to confront him over his use of a chain, but Landell's the type of guy who reads the ending of a book to see what happens, and the record books show victories for the Nature Boy. He then rattles off too many horrible but fantastic lines about the Dirty White Girl to count, bringing out DWB to tear up his priceless suit. Great segment. It's the promotion's final year but SMW has shown no signs of slowing down yet. Also loved Landell's near-psychotic insistence that DWB was riding a MULE earlier on.
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Every time SMW takes a step forward in moving past blatant race-baiting, they take two steps back. Here, D'Lo is holding up the black X flag, New Jack's got a t-shirt with a picture of Malcolm X on it, and he's holding a noose (!!) New Jack is incensed that Cornette and Armstrong suddenly seem to be buddies and that there's a guest referee at Sunday Bloody Sunday. HUGE heat for New Jack talking shit about the Rebel flag and pointing to the X flag as the one that's going to be flying. WOW.
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I think we all know where this is headed. One of the two gimmick matches at the Double Header is a loser-eats-dog-food match, which seems rather rinky-dink even for Cornette. Candido wants to let us know that "I may as well leave Smoky Mountain" was just a figure of speech, and I think we know who was behind that Bret Hart-won't-wrestle-in-the-US-again stip.
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Outside of his NWO stuff, I think this is my first look at Megaheel Chono. This is far more Crockett/Mid-South/Memphis-like than anything else in puroresu at the time including the deathmatch promotions. Pretty much the entire NJPW locker room is serving as lumberjacks, pouncing on Chono or Tenzan whenever either one hits the floor. Chono is kept outside while Tenzan is slowly brutalized and tortured by both opponents. After domination by the babyfaces, there's a ref bump (!!!) and things really break down. The heels fight back with weaponry, and Hase eats a piledriver onto a table before Tenzan moonsaults his way to victory. Things break down again after the match and Team Wolf is chased outside. This is a match that almost defies an actual star rating, but is great fun and serves as another gigantic point of difference for NJPW compared to All-Japan. Like the Dirty White Boy, Hash was sort of spinning his wheels as champion for the latter half of '94, and Chono's career was in even worse shape. Now both guys feel revitalized.
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WCW is 3 for 3 on video packages tonight. Tellingly, they show Vader power bombing Hogan at the Clash but make no mention of Hulk popping up. Someone in charge obvioulsy realized what a ghastly mistake that was. Hulk refers to a "second-rate organization" in New York, but there's no question which promotion was putting together a hotter World title program at the moment. This isn't groundbreaking but it's better and more intense than the usual WCW Hulk interview.
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A few years later they would have spiced this up with video clips of the Owen match to add to Diesel's narration. This is of the same realistic, "honest" tone of the Who Is Lex Luger interviews, but Diesel as both a person and a character is much more natural in this environment than Lex was. This has to be the first time the WWF openly acknowledged that their schedule is a grind, particularly for the face of the company.
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Really, ridiculously fun This is probably Rey's career performance in a Yearbook match to this point--a fantastic combination of sympathetic selling, spectacular flying, and a pretty nasty fired-up babyface comeback. Fuerza is also great, doing some more athletic spots in addition to his shtick. And there are a ton of clever spots throughout this, including the double low-blow and double-pin finishes to end the match. The draw is a tad disappointing but it does make you want to see these two hook it up again. Probably the best match of the first month and change of '95. It was definitely a lot more fun than either of the AJPW draws.
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And Shamrock wrassled before doing shootstyle/MMA. He was "Mr. Wrestling" Vince Torelli in the NAWA/SAPW.
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Some under-the-radar stuff: - The WCW return of Barry Windham was super-hot. The crowd was going apeshit when the Horsemen began to gang up on the half-crippled Sting. - I still like Doom's kidnapping of Ric Flair and thought it was a cool payoff to Teddy Long as limo driver. It's certainly one for a "WTF" list, though. - Ted DiBiase's attack on Dustin Rhodes on SNME was the best WWF angle of the year. Blood, wooden chairs, Dusty wailing in agony...it was the closest that WWF Dusty would ever come to his old Crockett self. - It wasn't the NJPW match of the year, but Masa Saito doing a babyface jig in his AWA title win stands out more to me than Liger's ripped mask or Hase's 11/1 comeback.