PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Recap of the Jack/Vader feud, complete with Lost in Cleveland footage. This is an excellent way to showcase how this angle went from legitimately harrowing and emotional to stupid as all hell to something salvageable. All "Lost in Cleveland" is basically chalked up to Jack playing mind games. -
This is not a particularly vocal crowd, and I don't recall any reason being given for anyone to care about this match to begin with. Damned if Roma isn't pretty energetic upon getting the hot tag. Nasties win the tag titles, yippee. Halloween Havoc '90 this wasn't. Never really grasped what Missy was supposed to add to this duo. She didn't even play a role in the finish. EDIT: If Missy could talk worth a damn, then her motivation (getting back at Ric Flair for continuously blowing her off) would be something I'd regard as pretty cool long-term storytelling. But she can't, so I won't.
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I remember this being decent, but the TV matches held promise of something great and I don't think we got it here. They try to recreate the Starrcade '84 magic as Steamboat comes into this with hurt ribs, courtesy of an umbrella attack on TV by Regal. Cool finish as Steamboat skins the cat but Dundee whacks him with the umbrella in a well-done spot.
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The Headhuntahs against Miguel Perez, Juniah and Crash tha Terminatah. Total Japan hardcore set-up, as both teams start from opposite ends of the building and run to the center to get baseball bats. Clever start to have Crash slam the baseball bat against the ringposts, letting everyone know that it's an honest-to-God bat. Chaotic brawl that ends up back in the ring, and dammit, I liked this quite a bit. The Headhunters are always fun, at least in small doses, with their big fat man bumping and high-flying, and there's even some good offense on display here in addition to all the weapons shots. Crash misses a moonsault and one of the Headhunters lands one of his own to retain the W*ING tag titles. I KNOW he gets better...he has to. But as it is now, I'm rooting for Joey Styles to die in a car fire. His commentary consists of about 6 lines repeated over and over again, spiced up with various lame puns and pop culture references that are weaved in with the subtlety of a flying hammer. ALL AT THE SAME CONSTANT SHOUTING VOLUME.
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Did Gilbert walk out already? Great fuckin' payoff to the King of Philadelphia shit. Kevin Sullivan is in, and this is about what you'd expect. Not bad, but not something that really ages that well and really not anywhere near as chaotic as the 3-way Smoky Mountain brawl. Oh shit, Gilbert runs in with a chair! I don't know if he's legit injured or what, but hey, they got me. Having a Texas Tornado Match end in a disqualification is pretty fucking lame, though. Kevin turns on Abdullah, because why not? The post-match is actually better than the match itself. Take a drink every time Joey uses anaphora in his commentary: "This is ridiculous! This is wild!" "Somebody call the paramedics! Somebody call 911!" "...as is Terry Funk! As is Kevin Sullivan!" Your liver will want to kill you.
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Is that really Joey Styles? That New England accent is WAY more pronounced at this point. JT Smith almost Cornettes his knee bumping off the scaffold, and Styles (or whoever it is) sells this monumental event by making a "fallen and I can't get up" MedicAlert crack. Oh joy--it's either Joey Styles or a New Englander Craig Johnson. Patriot beats up Smith through the crowd while Styles ridiculously oversells all this. "CALL THE NATIONAL GUARD!" Oh, shut the fuck up.
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Footage from a different and presumably earlier show than before. An attempted switch by the twins is unsuccessful, and the double dropkick nets the tag titles back. I'm sure the fact that their matches are almost all finish-only on these sets, but as little excitement as I feel over the Harris Twins, I haven't seen anything that's made me want to jump on the FF/Skip button either. Cornette and the twins are back on TV--Cornette is angry that the Harrises forgot his coaching while he was laid up, and were spending too much time listening to Kevin Sullivan. The Bruise Brothers are now on double-secret probation, and the Heavenly Bodies will leapfrog them for title shots.
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Commissioner Cornette is here! Back when this concept was totally fresh, believe it or not. He's gotten a brand new tux for Dutch Mantell and fired Bob Caudle. Not all the news is good--before Cornette achieved commissionership, the Rock 'n Roll Express regained the tag titles from the Bruise Brothers. Then another cock-up by Dutch, as Jimmy Del Ray's Beat the Champ challenge will come in the form of Robert Gibson. Armstrong/Funk highlights. Bullet Bob still throws an awesome punch. Overbooked finish as we get run-ins from Dr. Tom, Scott Armstrong, the Harrises, Ricky Morton, and Brian Armstrong. Cornette relied on these sorts of finishes too much, and Mark Curtis tended to come across as an idiot as he turns around and pays attention to the brawling for no reason, allowing Funk to clobber Armstrong with the branding iron for the win. Cornette is positively giddy backstage, wearing the green commissioner's cap. Funk humbly expresses his gratitude to the Lord for his victory--awesome! Back to the taping, and Cornette promises more changes, acknowledging that some pre-existing contracts can't be undone.
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Tatanka actually wrestled against Freezer Thompson in a studio squash, either this week or the week prior. I don't think too many WWF guys did that. Clips from the MSC, as a Paul Neighbors distraction allows Tatanka to level Lawler with a piledriver and take the Unified title. Tatanka's out for a promo and seems to enjoy playing a dick, even if he's pretty awkward, referring to "Jerry King" and correcting himself to "Jerry the Lawler." Big heat for him nonetheless, and a big reaction when Lawler comes out to confront him. Lawler feigns ignorance of how Survivor Series works, which doesn't speak well for him as a WWF broadcaster. Actually it's pretty great psychological warfare on Lawler's part, as he subtly kisses up to Tatanka to get on his good side to get him to agree to all this. The heel side are all champions--Tatanka, Tommy Rich, and the Dogcatchers. They'll go against "Lawler's Losers"--Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, and the Moondogs. All the belts will be on the line. Tatanka is so overconfident that he agrees to everything Lawler suggests. Wildfire is out and he's all smiles about this. Tommy Rich & Tatanka: they're the original Odd Couple. "THIS IS A REAL INDIAN HERE, BROTHER!"
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Holy crap, Rich must be close to 250 pounds. He has Paul Neighbors in his corner, and after Jarrett swipes Rich's chain and gets a 3-count on him, he protests. TD Steel finds the chain and restarts the match, when Rich immediately gets a cheap victory and wins the USWA not-the-Southern title. Rich comes out looking like early-'80s Ozzy Osbourne, gloating about the former World Champions he's beaten and the crackers hollering at him. Rich demands that Dave Brown refer to him as the champion, but Dave will only say, "You've got the belt." Clever. Tommy Rich brings up a "Miss Christine" which immediately starts to make Dave Brown uncomfortable, something that goes over my head. It brings Jeff Jarrett out, and for some reason he's being held back by like 6 guys, an event basically unprecedented in Memphis wrestling history.
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Yeah, this was really weird. The Quebecers had been around, but had never wrestled on the flagship show yet. And there was absolutely no build to this, no explanation as to why the Steiners kayfabe-wise would agree to this. I think the Steiners and the WWF were having contract issues and I think they were looking to be allowed to work in Japan, hence the rather sudden title change. And I get that getting the Steiners to do a pinfall job was like pulling teeth. Still a clumsy set-up, though. Really fun match. The Quebecers have lots of awesome double-teams and Pierre in particular is not afraid to bump his ass off, but they still come off as somewhat ineffectual cheating cowards, so they're almost a perfect U.S.-style match-up for the Steiners. I think I liked the Money Inc. Superstars match better, but this got lots of time and a nice long FIP segment on Scott. Scott makes the tag and a comeback, but quickly gets caught whacking Jacques with Johnny Polo's hockey stick, and we have a totally out-of-nowhere tag title change. Now that I think of it, this was clearly to set up the Quebecers as "Foreign Fanatics" for Survivor Series first and foremost.
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This had a slow start with a lot of resets and some sloppiness from the Kid, but they turned things into a very nice match--all clean, but with some intensity. Some of the exchanges sort of look cliche now but there was a lot of "non-WWF-style" stuff for the time here, like all the back-and-forth two-counts and the Boston crab counters. Not to mention the dives to the floor. Ross and Gorilla do an effective job of hyping this as a de facto #1 contenders match for the Intercontinental belt. I've said this before, but it's pretty sad that WCW is getting blown away by the WWF in terms of throwaway TV bouts--WCW was once (and would be again) the king of that domain, but not at this time.
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Pretty good match, but Chono was put away with rather easily, I thought. I know he had a nasty neck injury but he seems to have fallen off greatly from '92, both in terms of working ability and push. After the bout, Tenryu locks on the WAR Special and a bunch of guys from both promotions try to break it up. Hase finally takes Tenryu out with the golden arm bomber.
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This really kind of makes Sting & Davey Boy look like morons, but as others have said, WCW had no choice. Shockmaster couldn't find the door, so he made his own door. They're trying to reinvent him as sort of an overgrown manchild, which isn't any kind of an improvement but isn't really any worse, either.
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Interesting that even Memphis is sticking to referring to Vince only as "the voice of the WWF," though I think almost everyone knew what was really up. Lawler drops the bombshell that he, Vince, and Savage do voiceovers from a studio and not the arena! They really seem to be building to Lawler vs. Vince in the ring here, which would have been so awesome to see.
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What an awesome contrast to the previous Yearbook segment. "We're talking WRESTLING now? And apparently WRESTLING has been reduced, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Jerry Lawler...CHEATING! Trying to set another wrestler on fire!" Vince is so trolling hardcore fans at this point. It's pretty glorious to watch.
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I bet Lawler has gotten at least as many get-well wishes as Tunney got letters and telegrams of support on behalf of Lex Luger. Lawler calls out Doink for not taking out Bret Hart. Borne wasn't leaving yet (though I suppose it was only a matter of time), which makes this turn all the more ridiculous. There were all kinds of babyfaces he could have feuded with, and with enough of a push I think there could have been interest in a Doink-Undertaker mind-games feud. We needed more of this Lawler in the WWF.
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This is as perfect a summation of these events as could ever be compiled. Feel the heat for this burning USA vs. Finland feud. I love that they needed a more ethnic-sounding name for Tony Halme, so they gave him one that's not remotely Finnish. It'd be like naming the Quebecers Hans and Jose. Monsoon accuses Borga of being "someone from Helsinki with the intelligence of a Slinky" (!)
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