PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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The fans were reacting to the match, they just happened to be cheering the heels. Nothing wrong with that. They were following along to what the wrestlers were doing--notice they genuinely popped for Big E. doing the triple backbreaker on Rowan, because that was legitimately awesome.
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I've hammered my general distaste for shootstyle to death, in the Yearbook forums and in the old '80s Project forums. But Maeda vs. Fujiwara in '87 NJPW might be the match I differed with consensus on the most. I thought it was a meandering, boring mess even in comparison to the other UWF-in-NJPW matches. Always had trouble with Benoit vs. Sasuke in the J-Cup Finals. As in, when I first watched it, in like 1999. I don't think I've ever seen it in isolation, it's always followed a run of other really good juniors matches, and it's never stood out. That card peaked with Sasuke vs. Liger, and when I watched the 3 Sasuke matches just recently I came away not being convinced it was even as good as Sasuke-Samurai. Have to agree on the Bret-Owen cage match. I thought it was boring and overlong when I watched it live (though the post-match was aces) and I haven't been compelled to revisit it. I'm viewing the '94 Yearbook now and getting through that match again already sounds like a chore.
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Me too. In fact I'm waiting for the New Guinea Headhunters cage angle.
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Good stuff in the locker room. I really wanted, and still want, to see Rude vs. Vader. Regardless of how badly deteriorated Rude was. What a fucking show this is. Two more guys beating the living shit out of each other. Vader juices from the eye, bumps over the guardrail, and gets heaved off the middle turnbuckle square onto his shoulder. And he still has enough to catch Boss in mid-air with a powerslam and execute the moonsault. This *did* seem AJPW-like, particularly that "kick out of one move, but not another" ending. I have to say, I think Boss was pretty justified afterward. It was Race who brought the cuffs and nightstick into the ring intending to use them. His beatdown of Race is a tad over-the-top, though. But I guess that was the point. Even with Vader's clean win, this crowd (and I) want more from this feud. Bockwinkel makes sure to explain the difference between what the Boss did and what went on in the Bunkhouse and Street Fight matches. Good work from the Commish here, as ad hoc as this is.
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That seemed to be the beginning. As for the Buck feud proper, as I understand it, Dustin teamed with Erik Watts to reclaim Watts' Rookie of the Year trophy, which had been stolen by Tex & Shanghai. After reclaiming the trophy, Buck attacked both men and broke the trophy over Dustin's back. And goddamn, this is seriously up there with the two WM10 matches and Smothers/Candido for the best U.S. bouts of the year. As much as people enjoyed this, I may have liked it the most of anyone. Dustin begins in style by launching himself from the ramp and never lets up from there. It may be his best performance to date. Buck is mostly a punching bag, but he has great selling and a number of neat little tricks at his disposal to make up for the fact that he's not exactly Mr. Offense. This is also very well laid-out, as opposed to a mindless sprint like in the Chicago Street Fight. Everything Buck does to Dustin, Dustin pays him back with. When Heenan exclaims, "This is wrestling the way I like it!" I think he speaks for almost all of us. The only quibble I have is the finish itself, as all of a sudden Nick Patrick is a stickler for enforcing rules in a fucking Bunkhouse Match, just so Parker can slip knuckle-dusters to Buck. Why even bother distracting the ref for that?
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I love this crowd! Can't say the same for this finish, which goes completely off the rails with Harley and Vader seemingly each waiting for the other to do something, and Rude having to badly stall. Just awful execution and I'm not sure who was at fault. Bockwinkel looks totally ineffective at ringside while all this chaos is going on around him in a supposed title match. Also telling: as soon as Randy Anderson gets creamed, EVERYONE turns and looks to the entrance way, well before Harley and Vader appear. That's been a problem for WCW for a few years now and it's only fixing to get worse.
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I actually liked the haphazard camera work--it added to the chaotic feel of the match. They *shouldn't* know how to shoot this, and I appreciate the lack of Double Features and replays. It all adds to moments like the one mentioned above of Knobbs coming out of nowhere with a shovel. Jack suplexing the table was terrific as well. There's lots of jerking off here with all the shots to the head, but no one here has killed any family members yet so I feel a lot less guilty about it. Yes, it's just a bunch of weapons shots, but it still feels fresh in this setting and the pace is tremendous. This was something viewers of Big Two-only wrestling hadn't seen in years, if ever.
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Odd setting for a USWA promo. Eddie will be officiating a match between Brian Christopher and Doug Gilbert, as well as wrestling Tommy Rich. He draws parallels between his feud with Doug and his New Fabulous Ones split with Rich. Interesting spin on that, making it seem like Rich was the one who betrayed him. BRILLIANT Godfather reference, especially coming off the talk about Rich's daughter. He's fired up (no pun intended), but doesn't have much to say when Corey asks if the fans can trust him.
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I'm not sure that finish would have held up in a court of law, but the whole thing was an interesting twist on a standard USWA screwjob. They even threw in a different kind of ref bump instead of the standard "push off from a headlock" spot. Solid little studio match. I really hope some Graham promos make this set.
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I've always had trouble with this one--and that goes back to getting a tape of this show around 1999 or so, so it's not a "it'd be good without the dude who offed his family" thing. It's well-worked, but I never found it to be a perfect climax to an all-time great show as is its rep. It's not as good as Liger/Sasuke and definitely not as good as the CC final. I do get its appeal, though--watching North American guys that you're familiar with is a very good gateway to puroresu, juniors have always been a gateway in and of themselves, and there's also the underlying Dynamite-Tiger Mask tributes paid during this match. Regardless of how you feel about Sayama, he was a pivotal figure, and these two do just enough to get the point across without coming off as cosplaying and without overwhelming the match. Plus with Benoit there it only seems more fitting. I also love Liger (in evening wear) being so gung-ho and encouraging of the guy who just beat him. This is a very good match, but I simply can't see it placing in the top 10 for the year--it may not be in a top 10 if I had to break off and rank matches as of right now.
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There's a strong big promotion vs. little indy undercurrent throughout this--it was there in Sasuke/Samurai as well, but Liger is even more aggressive and more cocky that this little uppity indy nobody has the chutzpah to not roll over for him. It's the juniors version of Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H, in fact. Liger tears apart Sasuke's arm, which is not treated with any longer-lasting consequence than Samurai's leg work, but is less problematic for Sasuke to pull off his big dives. I LOVE the slip at the end--a blown spot that's simply too brilliant to have been intentional. With Sasuke having just been suplexed to the floor and gotten killed by a dive, it makes perfect sense. Plus Liger does one of the greatest cover-jobs ever--his body language all throughout this match was great, from cranking in the holds to his gigantic sigh of relief when Sasuke almost pulls a win out of his ass earlier. All these long Japanese epics in a row are starting to become a slog, no matter how great the wrestling is, but this rose above all that.
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Really not a fan at all of Sasuke completely blowing off the leg work, because the leg work was really damn good. A return to form for Samurai. Lots of great near-falls down the stretch, before Sasuke takes it with a rollup reversal--of which there were a LOT on this show, and I think it's a legitimate weakness that the juniors formula got repeated so much over the course of the night.
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Kawada is officially "back" after threatening to outright fall behind Kobashi as the #3 native in the company, getting a badly needed major win en route to a tournament victory. And he won it in a classic. AJPW isn't really a place known for great punches or punch-based psychology, so Doc's blows here in addition to looking good really stand out in comparison to what else was going on in the company at the time, and get over his desperation to put this fucker Kawada away. Kawada plays one of the best hit-and-run strategies ever, tiring Doc out with kicks to set up submissions and eventually his big bombs. He's the guy who gets the lion's share of credit for this match layout, but Doc's selling is for once just as good as his offense. Masterful performance from both guys, and the #2 MOTY. I don't think this CC quite reached the highs or particularly the variety of the '91 G1 Climax but it's unquestionably one of the better round-robins ever put on by a wrestling company.
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Really good 6-man--honestly I liked it about as much as any AJPW 6-man from '93. Poor Omori gets to be a punching bag again, and predictably does the job. Kobashi busts out the Orange Crush for the first time and while it looks great, you can see why Kobashi didn't really keep it around for long. It would have been better on Kenta's knees but a lot worse for everyone else on the roster.
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Yeah, this isn't one for deep storytelling but if you want two guys beating the shit out of each other, but also looking athletically impressive while doing it, this is the match-up for you. Similar story to the '93 match with a similar finish. Count me as another one who's sick of this giggly voiceover guy (I hesitate to call him an "announcer"). Then again this is the same company that saw fit to have its flower girls do commentary on its TV.
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Good opening with a great closing stretch. These two know each other inside and out--that was the story of the '93 Carny match but here that's illustrated by the timing they have on their sequences and counters. These are two guys clearly on the same page, but they still make it look authentic instead of choreographed. I love how Kawada's enzuilariato is a constant recurring element in this match-up, either as a finish or a major transition move.
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We're a ways off, and the people who follow college football the closest really don't have any idea how it will all ultimately play out. That said, the only thing established right now is that Northwestern football players are considered by the NLRB to be employees of the university, and the precedence set--again, for right now- applies to private universities. Obviously public schools would be the next domino to fall after that, but they fall under state laws rather than federal and schools that are in right-to-work states may see players have a tougher time trying to go that route. The NCAA is more fragmented than any professional league--unionization is almost going to have to be achieved on a school-by-school or at best conference-by-conference basis, unlike the more unified NFLPA, MLBPA, etc.
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This was veering dangerously close to 1991-92 levels of Doc to me. I really liked the start, though, with Doc getting greedy about zeroing in on Hansen's ribs and immediately paying for it. Hansen had wrestled so much on the defensive lately that it felt like a refreshing swerve to have him start out "hot." I definitely dug the 1990 match more than this. These two seem to be better off going at it in a balls-out sprint than at the more methodical pace we've seen here in and in tag bouts.
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They're already hyping up the Lawler vs. Piper feud that's come about 10 years too late.
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Man, am I getting tired of this overdubbed home video synth music for every damn wrestler's entrance. So, jdw or whoever else happens to see this: how did Misawa's injury affect the booking of the Carnival? Meltzer in the '94 Observers seemed to think he would have been the winner, and that Baba would then have to do something "special" like have Kobashi go over Hansen in the finals. My own thought (even though I bitched about him doing two jobs in '93) is that having the TC ace winner win the Carnival is redundant, and that Kawada should have/would have won it anyway. He was in far, far greater need of a signature win at this point in time. Not saying he needed to go over Misawa, just book an extra draw for the champ and have your Kawada/Doc match to wrap things up as what actually happened. Is it at least possible that Kobashi's win was "moved up" to add a little something special to the tour, though? This is assuming Misawa's injury was legit. I tend to believe it was because voluntarily taking him out doesn't sound like what's Best for Business , but it ended up being a pretty serendipitous injury from a booking standpoint. Anyway, yeah, this was very good as a change of pace in the rivalry--and a hell of a good match if Misawa was really too hurt to work the Carnival proper. Some of it is sort of fall-out-of-bed-ish, with some standard Misawa/Kawada sequences and counters like Misawa escaping from back body drops, but they throw in some wrinkles like Kawada having an answer for his feint-dive-through-the-ropes spot. This has been a good Carnival when it comes to throwing some different "styles" of matches at us by AJPW standards.
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Yeah, any thoughts that Hansen "peaked" on 7/29 are pretty much bullshit--he's still had it in every match I've seen this year. This is spectacular, with Hansen as the wounded underdog quasi-babyface. I wish Taue could have worked some holds in here, but that's never been his forte. He's along for the ride instead, but does a good job of following direction, at least. That said, his victory really doesn't seem to be as important as it should have been. It's not entirely fair, but compare the crowd reaction between this and Kobashi's win.
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I liked this, though not as much as the other Akiyama matches in the Carnival. I didn't mind Kobashi giving up so much--in a real-life sense this had the classic "trap game" written all over it after the euphoric rush of the big win over Hansen, so it makes sense for Kobashi to be "down" somewhat, and it continues the story of Akiyama's ascent.