PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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I always thought this was a phantom switch in "Cleveland," but that must have been some other Unified title change. When Todd got his football letter jacket at Utah State, he asked somebody to read it to him. Lawler's been away from the title for quite awhile so it's nice to see him back on top. Champion still isn't good but he seems markedly improved from his Patriot days, and came off well the previous week on TV. To the point where I'm surprised the WWF never gave the guy a look. Lee has foregone the Heyman look for a total mountain man scuzzball. Lee takes us on a tour of the palatial estate bought with the Moondogs' tag team championship money. Lee's deadpan narration is hilarious. -
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I actually liked this better than the first tag match. Maybe it's because Aja and Bull have such presence and a specific way of working that it overcomes one of my issue with joshi--that everyone seems to work at the same pace and in a similar style, so all the sequences in a tag match tend to run together the way that just doesn't happen in All-Japan or New Japan. I get that that's an oversimplification--I don't need to be told what sets apart someone like Toshiyo Yamada--but she still wrestles a similar pace with big kicks instead of other big moves. Anyway, that doesn't really come across here as even though they bump and give lots to their opponents, Bull and Aja still establish themselves as monsters. And there's a nicely focused closing run with Hokuto getting trapped into the ring and getting some great kickouts before a double-team puts her down. Definitely more satisfying on almost all levels than the first match.
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I sort of had the same issues with this as I had with the other 30-minute tag draw at Havoc. Thirty minutes of my-turn/your-turn wrestling can be a little much to take. The only strong sense of storyline I got was towards the AJPW-style ending stretch, and admittedly it was pretty awesome, with Hasegawa throwing great suplexes and Yamada constantly having to kick out because Debbie keeps cutting Toyota off from making the save. That had a strong Jumbo & Taue vs. Kobashi & Kikuchi vibe to it. And everything before that was really well-executed--I just still had trouble getting emotionally invested in who won or lost.
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Same premise as Jake's promos in response to the WWF ban the previous year. But what a great response it is. Jake had fun DDT'ing Sting on the chair, but he plans to drop him on the concrete floor. I don't know what this feud would have still had to offer in the ring, but there was promise in Jake aligning with guys like Vader and using them as surrogates to take Sting out for him.
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We get a bunch of babyfaces out as we get the mother of all church-bulletin promos from Lawler & co. Yes, this is a remarkably silent crowd for a 6-man main event. Lawler and Gilbert fulfill their promise for "barbecued dog" and take out the King Killer. He gets unmasked afterward but the Moondogs return to do a number on the babyfaces.
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The Nasty Boys, upset over not getting this title shot, laid out Money Inc. before the match started. The Disasters dominated this but Headshrinker interference put Money Inc. back on top. Odd finish as Earthquake never makes the hot tag after working FIP, and simply goes down to the Million-Dollar Dream to give the tag belts back to Money Inc.
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Han clobbers Maeda before the bell in an unexpected move and this has you thinking it's going to be a balls-to-the-wall, desperation sprint. But no, after that Maeda gets up and they have a typical match. Han does some great takedowns and the finish is a clever way to keep Han strong--Maeda unleashes a huge high kick that Han takes a tree-falling-in-the-woods bump for (with a great camera angle on it) and the ref instantly stops the match. But Han pops right back up, suggesting the referee may have called it early. Still...pre-match attack plus controversial early-stoppage finish adds up to a match that would have been much more effective as a brisk 10-minute bout instead of the marathon we got.
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The action that we see is actually better than I expected given this match's reputation, but the coal miner's glove certainly wasn't much of a factor. Jake then has to do a recreation of Bela Lugosi fighting the octopus in Ed Wood, forcing a snake that may or may not even be alive to "bite" him.
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This is a strong match that was just too long for its own good. I know the Gordy no-show or firing or whatever threw everybody off, but the draw simply wasn't necessary once he was out, and putting yet another 30-minute draw in a PPV tag title match was a little much. I actually liked the IDEA of the false finish, because I like it when tags and legal men are accounted for and the concept in general is respected. But the execution was pretty lousy on all fronts. On the plus side, this was probably Dustin's most complete performance to date--he matches up well trading shots with Doc and he works a strong FIP segment even if it goes a little long. All four guys came to play but Dustin and Austin were clearly working ahead of their partners here. Dustin and Doc worked great together, to the point where now I want to see a singles match between the two.
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This took a bit to get going but it ended up pretty decent. I am struck by how long it's taking for Pillman to really get working heel down. I get that it was new to him, but I always thought, for whatever reason, of Pillman as having a great mind for the business--may not be fair, but I thought he'd adapt quicker. As an undersized heel he probably could have stood to add some more Memphis stooging spots to his arsenal to go along with stuff like faking the knee injury. (The PeteF of ten years ago is aghast that I would suggest that instead of doing more moves.) This is one of the first times I've seen the fish-out-of-water spot actually end in a pinfall.
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It's covered in the 1990 Yearbook section, I think in May. Basically the Horsemen cut promos on Rocky King and the Junkyard Dog talking about how they didn't like having to "associate with their kind" and how they were going to show JYD "what we do to people like you back in Minnesota." That actually makes it sound tamer than it was--Flair did just about everything short of throwing out racial slurs (other than maybe "boy," which is bad enough).
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I think this is a legal precedent that goes back to Rousimoff v. Piper, when Andre got carried off during a tag match and then came back, and the match resulted in a DQ. Killer Kyle helps the Bodies overwhelm Gibson & Morton, and the Bodies go to work on Gibson's hand ("so he can never talk to his mother again!") Good match and angle even if the match ending didn't make the greatest sense. Have Gibson come in swinging a chair or something.