PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Snow rocking the Eddy Guerrero 'stache. Is this Damian guy Damian Kane or somebody else? I actually thought it was Pat Tanaka when I first saw him. Oh, wow, it's the actual Damian from Mexico. The fuck is he doing here? Anyway, this had most of the same flaws as the ladder match--total my-turn/your-turn stuff, and the selling is just nonexistent. Damian gets put through a table and he's back up interfering like 30 seconds later. It is tighter and Sabu hits all of his spots well, at least. The post-match is the reason to tune in, as Terry Funk does a run-in and things descend into total chaos. Not back-and-forth shit like in the match, but a total wild scene with every weapon available being used and everyone beating the shit out of everyone else and Funk being a total unstoppable force of nature. Sabu takes an insane bump over like 6 rows of chairs and then Funk heaves a seat at him from about 20 feet away, that damn near kills like a 6-year old girl hidden in the back. I can see why this was a sensation at the time, and with the "you are there" POV-style camera angle it appears to be a blast live.
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Oh shit, it's ANOTHER footnote to Steamboat's career. It's going to end up that he had like 4 years worth of matches in the can and we're going to see him turn up on a 1997 Worldwide wrestling Psicosis or Rick Fuller or someone. Decent little TV 6-man but I liked the previous week's tag better. The big highlight here is Funk's confrontation with a demented ringside fan.
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I love having the American Dream back kicking ass and cutting awesome promos. But this is classic Dusty ego-stroking, as only one other man can do and unfortunately he happens to be holding the company's Heavyweight title. This is all too much for one promotion. Bischoff is his usual starfucking self.
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Great 5-minute semi-squash. Armstrong gets just enough good-looking offense to showcase himself but not too much so as to make Vader look weak. This is it for Ventura, and as great as he was, he checked out so long ago that WCW really won't miss him a bit. It's funny--he won't make another wrestling appearance until just before SummerSlam '99, and that's only 5 years from this point! It's incredible how radically the wrestling business changed and then changed again in that time span. Far more than it did from '89 until '94 or indeed more than in the past decade-plus. Am I crazy or is Bischoff doing a very transparent Joey Styles impersonation through this? The tone and the cadences are eerily similar, and he even drops a Styles-esque "OH MY GOSH."
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Landell cuts yet another awesome promo gloating over taking out one of the Moondogs, with Rich adding some semi-psychotic interludes. Match is basically just a shine sequence for PG-13 when the Moondogs--both of them--attack. This spills out into the parking lot. Notice how Landell and Rich are making every effort not to have to roll around in wrestling gear on the blacktop. They both take like 5 chairshots and don't go down once. Jobbers, the Dark Patriot, and Brian Christopher eventually make their way in and a pretty crazy scene erupts. Everyone else has pointed out the passing cars and lone pedestrian, and yep, that's what I zeroed in on as well. Also, I'm not ashamed to admit I Google-Earthed to see if that Pizza Hut is still there. It's a Panera Bread now, though it seems to have been a very recent change.
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Well, this starts off well enough with Hogan somberly talking about the extent of his knee injury. Then he starts cutting a WHINY-ASS promo on Nick Bockwinkel (why'd you expect HIM to support you?), Bill Shaw, and Eric Bischoff for "not handling" Ric Flair. He's fucking fined and suspended! Oh, and Heenan's involved, too. Also, take a drink every time Hogan says "boxed in." He brings up the 30-day clause also, which is hilarious considering what his schedule is and will be. Bret Hart would watch this and think, "Oh, shut the fuck up and get over it already."
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God, i love promos of 4-5 guys all getting in little quick soundbites in succession. The combination of Funk, Buck, Parker, Meng, and Arn in a cowboy hat and bandana are actually more intimidating than the Gangstas and their posse, even in this environment. Exposer is right--this is truly the last gasp of classic southern wrestling.
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In some ways I'm surprised that Mustafa looked as competent as he did, but this is pretty much a nothing match and I don't agree with the decision to job the Gangstas this quickly. They get their heat back in a big way by flagrantly re-enacting the Rodney King beating on Ricky Morton after the match. There hasn't been a Yearbook yet with so much current-event pandering, not even during the height of the Gulf War. New Jack cuts a great post-match promo backing up everything he said earlier about fighting as opposed to wrestling. "We the wrong niggas to mess with!" Uh, wow. The Rodney King re-enactment and the n-bomb come off as more cynical and/or desperate than just pure wrasslin', even though I understand the motivation behind the gimmick and respect Cornette for taking risks.
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Scott Bowden unveils his newest charge, the mysterious Dark Patriot! Two whole words into his promo and Dave Brown interrupts, "THAT'S DOUG GILBERT!" Good work, Dave. Meanwhile the Moondogs are out to wrestle Mephisto & Dante and I think I know where this is going. Scott Bowden tricks Spot into chasing him outside where the masked guys slam the door behind him and lock him out, allowing Rich & Landell to come in and repeatedly bash Spike with chairs. Spike and Spot are fatter and even more out-of-shape than they were in '92, and Spike cannot do sympathy selling at all. He just kneels there while getting his head bashed in. This was all very well-done up until Spike had to start selling.
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Doc's first defense and I believe Kobashi's first TC challenge. This was good, really good, though I can't help but call it a disappointment in the face of how good Doc has been over the past 12 months and how great Kobashi was in '93 particularly. They were mostly victims of their own high standards. The first part of this was very '00s-Kobashi, with all the chops and staredowns. It's a little slow going but it's a little something different for an AJPW main event. It's long and not an all-time classic, but I didn't really see it as "masturbatory." The first 25 minutes of this, the most advanced move we see is a Doctor Bomb. Kobashi only provides a moonsault and a German, and except for being bodyslammed to the floor was pretty light on the super-crazy bumps. Doc finally puts him away with a backdrop into the turnbuckle followed by a backdrop suplex for the pin. Really good match but not as good as 7/93 or Doc's matches earlier in the year.
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Historic moment, though this is another match with pretty terrible work at the finish. Douglas throws some of the worst strikes you'll ever see. Then the famous post-match promo--hey, check it out, blatantly canned "E-C-W" chants. Dennis Coraluzzo cuts a newscast-style man-on-the-street promo and talks of going to the NWA Board of Directors and says that Douglas is still the champion. Tod Gordon gets around that by folding Eastern Championship Wrestling and opening a new company, Extreme etc. etc. How very Japanese shoot angle-y of everyone. Stop referring to "the ECW," dammit.
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Pretty terrible action, though I marked for Woman clocking Dreamer over the head with the cane at the finish. Tod Gordon wants to restart the match but Dreamer demands to take the 10 shots. This sure is drawn out. Woman is great here but there's not a lot of drama wondering if Dreamer is actually going to bow down to her. This seemed effective enough to get Dreamer over as a tough guy, I guess.
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Yes, they had one singles match in the King of Cable tournament (thanks, wrestlingdata!) Also a bunch of 6-mans on opposite teams, don't know if any were for TV.
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Shot in the dark: they could conceivably have wrestled in Germany.
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Full match is a Worst Match of the Year candidate, albeit not as long as the Night the Line Was Crossed. This featured an almost legendarily silent crowd, but by the time we join in they're actually pretty vocal--so I guess kudos go to both guys. Nothing about this storyline or build ever made sense and the climax, from the match finish to the Nielsen/Kennedy postscript, answers no questions.
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I was prepared to slog my way through this, as my memories watching it live conform to most of what's been posted here. Imagine my surprise when I thought this actually was pretty good. Oh, calling it ***** or any kind of MOTY is batshit crazy even by '94 WWF standards, and the match definitely suffers from length. Steiners/Money Inc. and the Bret/Yokozuna matches are much tighter examples of how escape rules with '90s WWF PG limitations can be worked. Still, this had some great intense work in the beginning and better spots than I remembered, like both guys repeatedly diving for the closing door and both guys taking great crotch bumps onto the top rope. There are probably about 5 or 6 more attempted climbs and teases than there needed to be, even if the "near falls" are done quite well. A pretty insane crowd helps this tremendously. Throw in a terrific, JCP-style post-match with babyfaces trying to storm a padlocked cage, and all in all you have a match I ended up enjoying more than I expected.
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Probably the low point of Luger's career and the high water mark for DiBiase as a manager. Well-executed angle and a good beatdown--Tatanka busting out the Million Dollar Dream was a clever touch. But Tatanka was just about the worst heel ever, and he suffered from Ricky Morton Syndrome in never substantially changing his look. He needed to go full-Wahoo when he was with Tully Blanchard, slicking his hair back and wearing suits.