PeteF3
Members
-
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by PeteF3
-
Monsoon seriously picked Mabel to win this? That's crazy talk! I forgot about the one thing they attempted to directly involve Art Donovan with, that he was supposed to be in Razor Ramon's corner (figuratively, I mean) the whole night. Also, incidentally, I'm missing all the talk and emphasis on round-by-round time limits from 1993. Knowing about Jim Ross' recent podcast comments that was surely his doing. There's not much chemistry between these two, and the match is a disappointment. I don't think it was ever in Razor to wrestle three times in a night. Naturally Gorilla completely shits all over the concept of Owen doing an abdominal stretch on Razor. Before the match even has a chance to go anywhere, Neidhart is out and it ends. Probably for the best, but I think they had something greater in mind for this match, but as much as I like the Neidhart turn Owen comes off as a real chump, since the whole match was a Razor shine sequence and a screw finish. Hart Attack after the match! Oh, I marked out for that. Bret's shellshocked about Neidhart's actions. Jack Tunney is wheeled out for an increasingly rare live appearance for the coronation ceremony. Owen gives him the brush-off so that the only family member he can trust can crown him. Holy shit, a New Foundation reference! Didn't see that one coming. I dunno, there's something strangely fascinating about this entire show. It's a very, very odd combination of horrible, chaotic production by a reeling, turbulent company...with some excellent wrestling and decent booking. With shit-tons of "New Generation" references, which ring almost as phony and desperate as Hulk Hogan's press conference. And yet, little nods to history like the Hart and New Foundations, and high-end matches like Kid/Owen, that are more for the devoted fan than the young audience they were obviously courting. Oh, and the disastrous main event that deserves mention. The production as a whole is very "off" but in a completely different way than next year's disaster. I'm very strangely compelled to check this show out in full on the Network sometime--it's one of the truly unique PPVs in company history. Perhaps only the D-Generation X PPV compares. -
Fantastic. Kid is working an injury angle stemming from the Double J match earlier, as an excuse for these guys to go balls-to-the-wall from the opening. Actually before the opening, as Owen CREAMS Kid with one of the greatest baseball slides of all-time. Almost had me jumping out of my seat, since Owen just emerged from the dimmed lights out of nowhere. He also busts out a German suplex counter and a fucking POWER BOMB that kills the Kid dead to set up the Sharpshooter. One of the best 5-or-fewer minute matches ever, anywhere.
-
Well, here it is. The only Coliseum Video-era WWF PPV that I've never, ever seen. Like I said, this was pretty much rock bottom for the WWF. Business may have been worse in '95, but bad business combined with the federal indictment was a deadly combination that permeated the entire product and even the American wrestling business as a whole. Vince wasn't even able to be at this show, and fairly or not it shows in the first 30 seconds of footage that we see, as we get an awkward production moment involving the footage of Bret on the King's Court. And of course, the incomprehensible decision to have Art Donovan sit in on all 3 hours of the show. Even Finkle's absence casts a pall over this, not to mention the shockingly dark Baltimore Arena. We do at least get the debut of Bret's new theme here. Bret does some very good work over Diesel's legs, and Diesel does a surprisingly good job of selling it. Donovan aside, Monsoon & Savage are awful together and each one calls the match as if a split second of silence would be catastrophic. It makes you long for the modern-day indifference of Jerry Lawler. In the end, I'm pretty stunned at how much I liked this. I knew this match had somewhat of a rep, but Diesel's selling throughout was a really unexpected highlight--especially his punch-drunk staggering after hitting the exposed turnbuckle. Bret basically slots Diesel into his standard big-vs.-little template that he worked against Bam Bam the previous year, but it's a nice reliable way to build a match with an inexperienced guy. The Patterson influence is definitely there, especially Shawn clobbering Bret with the title and the near-fall off of that. There were some other unexpected wrinkles--Bret suddenly taking Diesel down and applying the Sharpshooter from his back was a very neat spot, and the finish is a well-done copout--Neidhart saves Bret's title, but his motives are left ambiguous--was he out to save the title, or did he just react to Diesel attacking him? And where'd he go during the post-match beatdown? I really think they wanted to have a great match, and Nash worked as hard as you'll ever see him work. He blows and mistimes a few things, so they don't quite get there. But I have to give him an A for effort, and all my harping about the quality of the product aside, I've always thought Neidhart's involvement with this show was incredibly well-booked.
-
-
Holy hell, I could watched these eight guys go at it for 2 hours. Ohtani is one of the most graceful pure athletes I think I've ever seen in wrestling, or maybe anywhere. We get to see Sasuke work heel, and the New Japan guys work Michinoku Pro comedy spots. We see one of the greatest dive trains ever in terms of combining sheer athletic grace with high impact pain. This was a total blast and if anything it was too short.
-
This isn't as slickly put together as a WWF or even a Memphis music video, but the choice of song works--it's instantly cooler and more "with it" than any other promotion in the country. That said, you can pretty obviously see that they put in the absolute bare minimum amount of actual, in-ring wrestling content for it to qualify as a wrestling video. Hiding weaknesses is a Paul E. specialty and in this case the weaknesses cover everything that happens once the bell rings.
-
-
-
The greatest day in the history of professional wrestling. "Great" meaning large or immense--we use it in the pejorative sense. Hart makes a nuisance of himself and Okerlund actually asks for Hogan's "official John Henry" on the contract. Hogan cuts a promo on Flair and about arm-wrestling Ted Turner. Yeah, kind of a far cry from Trump Plaza breaking apart and Donald Trump throwing away his earthly possessions to ride on the back of the Hulkster on the crazy scale. This is legitimately a game-changing move for WCW, as it indirectly leads to Nitro which leads to the most exciting period of wrestling in my lifetime. But man oh man, does this reek of phoniness and a short-term changing of the guard that isn't for the better. The sad thing is, WWE's competitors (such as they are) haven't really learned a thing in 20 fucking years.
-
Music video with a weird, distracting strobe effect set to Chris Benoit's music. Blink and you'll miss Glen Jacobs taking a Stinger Splash. Some weird editing choices in terms of commentary snippets and a Vader moonsault that's bizarrely dropped in at the end. Sting was never a great promo so this is middle-of-the-road for him. I appreciate the nod to history and the first Clash.
-
I think there's a disconnect between the dates and which Flair promo is which, but okay, I'll go with the thread I haven't posted in yet. Flair is interviewed by Schiavone here, and he's trying to reign himself in after his tantrum last week. That lasts for about 30 seconds before he's worked up again, this time about Sting calling himself the "Franchise." Have to side with Ric on that one. "WHO'S...HULK...HOGAN?!" Flair offers to smack around Stallone and Mr. T before begging Hogan to appear at the Clash.
-
-
We see footage of the Dirty White Girl being immobilized and spineboarded while Jake gleefully narrates. Kimberly did the DWB a favor by taking the fall for him! DWB wonders if his dog and his wife and look at him the same way, and is out to avenge his family name. This is building to a great payoff, but sadly it's not going to come.
-
-
These upcoming piledriver matches are "unsanctioned"...but the tag titles are still at sake. Zuhh?? Goddamn, Cornette, don't do shit like this just after I've made a post defending your booking as more logical than Memphis. Morton gets in some good lines on Lee & Candido before calling out Tammy Fytch. Robert Gibson sneaks up behind her and pours...dirt, but it's called manure over her. Tammy sells this great and Bob does an even better job, though this isn't really one of the great humiliation angles.
-
Pretty decent action but Memphis seems to be out of surprises. After some of the most innovative booking in the world in 1990, a lot of their standard finishes and screwjobs and attacks just seem staid. Hell, even Antonio Pena tends to be doing Memphis better than Memphis. Smoky Mountain offers up cleaner, more logical booking and ECW has passed it in terms of in-ring craziness. It also seems way early for the freshly turned Scott Bowden to be eating fire.
-
This is a very thinking-man's UWFI bout. The matwork isn't exactly dynamic, but I got the strategies of both guys. It makes sense for Albright to just lay across Takada as much as he could, as the very act of being ridden by Albright would be tiring. Takada had to stay upright, keep his distance, and strike. We had a traditional southern shootstyle tag earlier on the card--this is a shootstyle studio main event. There are also great teases throughout of Albright's big full nelson suplex, but in the end it's Takada's strategy that pays off, as just like with Steve Nelson, Albright simply can't counter Takada's kicks. I liked this a lot, even the slow beginning, because they told the story so well. The slow opening never felt meandering or pointless, in the way that a lot of shootstyle "feeling out" processes do to me.
-
-
A fucking face-in-peril, hot tag, house-afire sequence in UWFI! This is the best UWFI tag that I've seen, with good strategy being shown by the Americans in working over Saku's leg, and a recurring story of Nelson not having any answer or defense for the low kicks. Also some incredible "near-falls"--this is really about the most traditional pro wrasslin' layout you'll ever see in a UWFI ring. Lydick & Nelson going all gloating ugly-American in their celebration was cool, too.
-
I wouldn't say this is the deepest match ever, and in that regard it pales in comparison to the top AJPW 6-mans. But this was fun, and the New vs. Old was a bit of a different dynamic than AJPW tended to offer. Match ends suddenly and while Hase pinning Choshu is quite the shocker, I'm starting to be over all these big NJPW upsets. Liger pinning Chono, Chono doing a singles job to Tatsutoshi Goto earlier in '94, and now this...none of these really seem to be accomplishing anything for the winner. I think there's a happy medium to be had between AJPW's conservative style and NJPW's anything-can-happen method.
-
-
-
-
Wow. This was, quite simply, a war. Great work by both guys to get over the stakes--Ramirez is clobbered before the bell which typically signifies a quick rudo victory, but he comes back to get a win. Cruz weathers a storm in the second fall to make his own comeback, and gets a clean submission with a cool spinning hangman hold to take Ramirez's hair. Ramirez throws in some great athletic moves including a gorgeous huracanrana, and the dives are among the most high-impact you'll ever see. Done with bullet speed and huge bumps into the ringside seats. Other than Cruz's pre-match attack and doing a fake low blow, the rudo/technico divide is pretty nonexistent--this is just two guys beating the fuck out of each other going all-out to win. One of the best lucha matches of the year.
-
"THAT'S NOT ROWDY RODDY PIPER!" Yeah, Lawler's intro was right out of the Howard Finkle-at-WrestleMania-5 playbook. This would have been funnier with either one of the Prichards, or Lawler doing a full-on Brother Love and interviewing himself. This kid isn't bad, though, even if he sounds more New England than Canada. Lawler and the guy make some SO not 1994-PG-WWF jokes about what's under Piper's skirt and where he got his earring from. There's some good stuff to come from the WWF, but after the company was pumping so much good stuff in '93, we're firmly into the UN-BE-LIEVABLE New Generation Era, and a lot of this I suspect is going to be a tough watch. A skit like this isn't a bad way to add to a feud, but this stuff is going to make up ENTIRE feuds now. Compare and contrast with Terry Funk interviewing "Rick Flaire," which made up like 1/100th of the Funk/Flair feud as opposed to being the primary focus (not to mention this segment lacked a babyface coming out to take up Piper's side and leading to an awesome brawl--can't have too much excitement on one show).