PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Very much the shootstyle version of Rude vs. Pillman, as Fujiwara is pushed hard by an undersized rookie but still wins convincingly. Loved Fujiwara's signature Boston crab counter getting thrown back at him and the leg kicks were good looming story throughout the match that played into the ending. -
Holy shit, this is the WCW Match of the Year to this point. It was fast-paced yes, but I didn't get any "spot-a-thon" vibe at all. It came off like a quick multi-man AJPW tag with the layers that it had and they had room for a pretty epic Dustin FIP segment where the DA takes his leg apart. Plus Arn gets some awesome little things in, both in the ring and on the apron, like refusing to engage Sting when he's tossing DA guys around left and right. Dustin's hot tag is hot indeed, and Steamboat going nuts on all four opponents is one of the best things he's done since coming back. Fantastic TV match in front of a psychotic crowd.
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So odd to see Kawada and Kikuchi as a team. Kikuchi is about the purest babyface in history and Kawada is already a surly bastard despite the Misawa rivalry not even being a glimmer in its father's eye...or something. Anyway, the Can-Ams jump the natives before the match and Kawada eats a tiger driver on the floor. Now that's getting your point across early. And this match doesn't slow down from there. Kawada works FIP(!) and gets destroyed for a few minutes before making the hot tag to Kikuchi(!!) who gets in a few flashes before he too gets destroyed, but not without kicking out of everything the Can-Ams put him through. Closing stretch is just as heated as the beginning, with Furnas making one of the great last-second pin saves in wrestling history, rescuing Kroffat from a Kawada power bomb at 2.9999. Kawada locks in the Stretch Plum and this time Kikuchi is able to hold Furnas at bay long enough for Kroffat to pass out for the ref stoppage. This wasn't exactly a psychological masterpiece but who needs that when the action, intensity, and--yes--the transitions are all this good? #2 MOTY to this point behind the Jumbo/Kawada Triple Crown.
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Big Bad John is some big dude in street clothes working a sort-of Festus gimmick, as he's rendered docile by a towel being put over his head. Boni Blackstone is at ringside along with Tracy Chapman or perhaps her long-lost twin sister, and they're both intensely curious as to where Prichard found this guy. John is an oaf who can barely run the ropes, but Gilbert carries this to something decent. They tease an opening when John messes up his knee, but he quickly comes back to lock Gilbert in a backbreaker and despite Eddie shaking his head no, the referee calls for the bell. Wow, THREE Montreal screwjob finishes (counting each fall of the hair vs. hair match) in the span of two weeks. Terry Garvin protests, but Gilbert honors the pre-match stip to kiss the feet of Bruce Prichard, who is making almost no attempt to disguise his Brother Love voice. I keep expecting Gilbert to have something up his sleeve, but nope. And then John levels him again afterward and locks him in the backbreaker again, as Terry Garvin is unable to break the hold with chairshots. We get that magic ESPN editing on the post-match shots but Gilbert whacked John in full view of the camera twice during the match for all of us to see. Gilbert seems to be doing a very good job of booking Global at this point. He used John as effectively as possible and it's striking how much late-'90s and '00s stuff is showing up at this point.
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I thought Lozansky (about whom I know nothing) kept up just fine. Not in much but he kept up with some pretty dizzying sequences. Los Cowboys have easily been the lucha highlights in the first part of 1992, just as Los Brazos were the standouts of '91. I think we have two guys building a very strong Tag Team of the Year case. The rudos take the second fall and do a triple Fargo strut afterward, which is about the high spot of the year. This is a total balls-to-the-wall sprint that's about the STIFFEST lucha trios match I've seen. Los Cowboys throw some pretty wicked clotheslines and their dives look hurty on top of looking spectacular. Lots of bombs thrown by both teams in addition to all the high-flying. As much as I'm loving them, am I the only one with major trouble telling Silver King and Texano apart?
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Warrior being locked in the casket was sold pretty big, and even rather realistically. No blood but they pushed the idea of not being able to breathe really hard. Austin 3:16 vs. Pillman 9mm, not to mention all the stuff with Goldust, probably tops all of that.
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Dutch and Ron Wright are almost as tearful as Richard Lee was. Wright of course needs a hip and knee replacement and Medicare won't cover it, so he's in Smoky Mountain to manage the North American champion and use that money for the operation. An inspired Dutch Mantell asks him to accompany him to the ring to face Brian Lee. Wright as the crippled old man was a fantastic character and it was amazing how involved he was able to get in matches without ever leaving his wheelchair.
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Incorporating current events in wrestling can oftentimes be a disaster (see: Slaughter, Sergeant). But Cornette always did a great job of it, whether making references in promos or recreating events with angles. Reminders that there's a real world outside of wrestling are a good thing, when done well. Caudle's "What'll happen to me if Jesse sees this?" reactions anytime Cornette or Daryl Van Horn went over the line in a promo are always gold.
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Flair and Perfect are seething mad. Flair warns Savage that he knows something that Savage doesn't. Intrigue! Savage challenges Flair to say what he means instead of holding back on what he knows. Sid lays out some arguments regarding Hogan's jealousy of him, and they're pretty hard to argue with. Very good promo from Sid. So, wait, it was TUNNEY'S decision that Hogan had to come out of the WWF title match? That's kind of bullshit--I had always thought that Hogan had demanded a match with Sid after the events of SNME. Hogan cuts a whiny promo on Tunney and then tells Sid he couldn't lace up his boots. Way to put your opponent over, Hulk. Three good promos and a subpar performance from Hogan. Hogan has done lots of good work on these Yearbooks, and some bad--but I'm getting to the point where I'm not going to miss him once the WWF goes Hulk-less for the rest of the year.
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The presence of the camera makes little sense and yes, it's definitely a very late-'90s segment. It was still fun though, thanks to Gilbert's subterfuge and Horowitz's excuse-making. Craig Johnson gallantly tries to explain that no one was able to get in touch with Beard between the weigh-in and the match. Match isn't on the level of the Lynn/Kid stuff but Horowitz is so good at the basics and has just enough high-end offense to enhance that, so we get a nice solid match. Horowitz is in the unusual role of dominating bully after Lynn misses a second-rope dropkick and takes a nasty bump right onto Horowitz's knees, which probably wasn't pleasant for either guy. Horowitz attempts to use brass knucks but can't keep Lynn down with them, leading to a sunset flip and Lynn victory.
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There's a big rudo ref storyline encompassing this match. I bitched about some of the Gran Davis stuff earlier and I don't know if this led anywhere, but at least the heel ref here was consistent. He gives an incredibly slow count when Selvaje is pinned to end the first fall, and both submissions come across as Montreal finishes judging by the reactions of Sevilla and Norman Smiley. Plus he was constantly cutting Sevilla off whenever he was throwing a punch or trying to work over Salvaje in the corner. For two guys I don't really have any emotional connection to, the third fall was certainly full of drama, with some stupefying bumps to the floor and dives from Sevilla that were practically out of the overhead lights. I was a little torn on Sevilla's conduct...I mean, there was no doubt the referee was against him but at times he still comes off as a whiner. Sevilla loses his hair but absolutely nothing appears settled. This turned into a fine match, but I do hope this leads to a rematch that's wrestled straight-up.
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This had a sllllooow start that had me ready to tune out, highlighted mainly by Hase delivering some really stiff shots to Armstrong. Right when the natives do the AJPW "knee drop onto the table" spot on Armstrong, this picks up in a hurry. The idea of Muto and Hase working as heels with Brad as sympathetic babyface in Japan and Norton acting all sportsmanlike in not making the save seems completely back-asswards and counterintuitive, but they make it work and Brad actually gets the crowd completely behind him. Great turning point as Hase gets all dizzy after doing the giant swing, and Norton finally asserts himself on the outside by leveling him with a clothesline to set up the hot tag. Norton as babyface house afire works just as surprisingly as everything else, and we get some great double-teams before the rather inevitable finish. Full credit to all these guys for digging themselves out of what was shaping up to be a disappointment.
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Great match, probably the best in this particular series and a shade better than Liger/Honaga from a few days earlier. The ribs play another role in this bout--less of a focus than the Honaga match, but enough to give Benoit something to focus on and to heel it up a bit as well, as the crowd is not appreciative of his mode of offensive attack. Liger weathers Benoit's big moves and has to resort to a flash pin victory, and Benoit trashes him after the match just because. MOTYC to this point, though Jumbo/Kawada is still sitting at #1.
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At the time, I hated Piper on commentary, at least once he became a typical babyface asskisser--the feisty Piper at SummerSlam '90 I enjoyed a great deal. As a worker, he was better than I remembered, though he wasn't working a full schedule and that probably was a factor. His strikes weren't that good-looking but his matches were full of energy with almost no downtime. His MSG match with Perfect was the best WWF match of 1990, and it wasn't a fluke because they had a killer match at a house show I saw at around the same time. I won't call myself a big Piper fan, but up until his 1992 departure he generally added to any segment he was in as an interview or a worker.
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Hogan/Earthquake is like half as long and 1990 WWF was not a strong-quality year.
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Their One Night Only match will be on, right? Doesn't it kind of have to be? Honestly, I don't see any reason to include that and the full SummerSlam match, which is really, really long when you throw in entrances and the post-match (I think about 40 minutes total). The SummerSlam ending would be just fine. Comparing the two matches in full would be an interesting exercise but it's probably one to save for those who really want to do it. With such a loaded year it's a cut that can be easily made.
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Not a MOTYC or anything but it says a lot for the WCW in-ring product that a match can be this good and heated and still not really stand out in the face of what else is on TV and PPV for this company. And hey, it's a high-quality 6-man with nary a Dangerous Alliance member in sight. The WCW roster has some depth again.
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