PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Holy crap, Embry just keeps topping himself. Instead of his usual screaming act, Embry is calm and collected in the wake of a controversial UTC defeat at the hands of Lawler, which somehow makes him more dangerous. Embry conclusively establishes that Dave Brown and all of the USWA brass don't like him, and then he brings out Paul Neighbors and asks why he called for a blood stoppage. Embry is incredulous that Neighbors was looking out for his well-being and in a "holy shit" segment goes all Bernard Shaw/Michael Dukakis on Neighbors, asking if Neighbors would intervene on a police officer beating on a burglar who had shot his kids and had his way with his wife. Embry demands that Neighbors never worry about his welfare again, so to ensure Neighbors' hatred he decks him and cuts off that ridiculous ponytail. Eddie Marlin physically yanks Embry off of Neighbors before the haircutting can continue, and Embry calls him out on his promise to fight Embry if he touches him again. Embry makes the challenge: Neighbors and Marlin in a 2-on-1 handicap match against Embry, with all three men's hair on the line. Neighbors is fine with this since he'll have a partner, and eventually Embry browbeats Marlin into accepting the challenge as well...with the caveat that Embry will also be fired if he loses! Marlin and Brown were both really good here--incidentally Brown should be a cinch shoo-in for Announcer of the Year the way things are going, since Ross and WCW have dropped off so badly. But, even after I've said it for several of his last few promos, this is Embry's best heel promo to date and maybe his best, period. The low-key Embry, whether threatening Skandor Akbar or trying to get answers out of Paul Neighbors, is exponentially more compelling and threatening than Embry the screamer. His various reactions to Eddie Marlin's comments--wisecracks at Marlin's experience, laughter, and the look of shock at the final added stip before regaining his composure--are all outstanding. This is the Memphis Segment of the Year so far, hands down. -
"YEAH, READING GLASSES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH." Oh my God, Savage is absolutely priceless here, acting exactly like Savage always does regardless of the setting. Heenan envisions a future in which Savage is washing dishes while arguing with Charlie Brown's schoolteacher. Yeah, that took kayfabe, put a bullet in its head, ran it over with a steamroller, and dumped the body in a swamp...but I think Savage could easily take Jerry Lawler in a phone book-reading contest. Savage's baseball background is brought up for maybe the first time ever on TV, and Monsoon asks if he's "touched all the bases in this situation." And it being Gorilla, I can't tell if that has any double-meaning at all or not. Gorilla and Bobby both antagonize Randy about the possibilities of a wedding interruption, or Liz walking out herself for a better offer (Bobby: "Donald Trump's single"). Another standout performance from Savage, who's been thriving in almost any setting heel or babyface, main eventer or mid-card.
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Gorilla Monsoon has taken Vince's place on the Prime Time set. On the negative side, Vince's spectacular wardrobe is gone and this is probably a sign that the live audience ship is sinking. On the other hand, it's Bobby and Gorilla on Prime Time--the way it should be. Jim was long finished as a wrestler so who knows that this segment was supposed to get over. Hillbilly dedicates a song to Randy and Liz and for God's sake, Jim, tune your guitar before you start playing it.
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One week before the Bash, WCW's main man is out. Considering the complete absence of any significant build to this cage match I can't envision this hurt things that much. Not an indictment of Flair, but an indictment of what a mess WCW was even before their franchise player was let go. Herd does what Capetta did in New Jersey, which is hype up Luger vs. Windham. Capetta emphasized that a new World Champion would be guaranteed, which was a smart move to make and one that should have been repeated here.
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All the chase scenes over the past few weeks are a great way to build up to the lumberjack stip. Embry cuts another psychotic enraged promo but takes off again whenever Lawler comes out. This ends up in a fantastic chaotic scene involving Embry, Prichard, the Barroom Brawlers, and Jarrett/Fuller all swinging chairs at one another and trashing furniture.
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Things apparently didn't go well for Jackie Fargo last Monday night in a tag match against Embry & Leatherface. Embry comes out with a yellow rose of Texas for Fargo, just to rib things in. Now Embry has a lumberjack match against Jerry Lawler, but Dr. Tom Prichard will be the lone heel lumberjack along with 4 or 5 babyfaces. Embry throws a fit. That coupled with his promise to get Eddie Marlin back for his $3,000 fine leads me to believe there's some big trouble ahead.
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Sabu actually doesn't look too good here but RVD has a nice array of crowd-pleasing spots and cool counters. Zakowski dominates, but Judge Dread costs RVD the match and Sabu wins with his feet on the ropes--Memphis! Yeah, Dave is pretty patronizing when Rob demands a rematch, but he's sort of justified too.
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Uh-oh, Gene's in the ring and not the podium, so you know some major shit's going down. Liz demonstrates why she was rarely allowed to talk, especially in a live setting. Savage is pretty funny in how uncomfortable he is on commentary--yeah, that situation has to be a total nightmare for any man. Huge reaction for this, though I found this whole set-up to be intolerable at the time, and was praying for a good payoff at the wedding to justify the whole thing.
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This picked up with Eaton taking his now-signature guardrail bump but I didn't think much of this overall. Lots of opening stalling that wasn't particularly interesting and Ross and Paul E. spent most of the match trying to get themselves over instead of the participants. Jeannie claws at Eaton's eyes and that leads to Austin winning the belt. Not the best-executed finish ever, but a good win for Austin and a sign that the WCW brass was very high on him.
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I literally can't fathom the suggestion that Flair is akin to the Honky Tonk Man or even Heel Lawler as champion. I broke down the Flair/Lawler comparison in one of the '90 Yearbook threads already, I think in the Lawler vs. Jarrett thread from April. The differences are readily apparent once you've seen a few matches of Lawler as a heel. Flair didn't use chains or foreign objects to get or maintain an advantage--only as finishes or occasional false finishes. The figure four and the idea that Flair could destroy the babyface's knee loomed over every match--yes, even though Flair was constantly killing his own finisher. No one--nobody on the planet--feared that the Shake Rattle 'n Roll or the fistdrop was going to end anybody's career. I've literally never seen Flair work the mic in the middle of a match--maybe a counterexample exists out there, but having watched a fuck ton of Flair I haven't come across such an occurrence. That Flair engaged in begging off and bitch spots does not make him the equivalent to the Honky Tonk Man. One wonders how someone who's admittedly lost interest in viewing any Flair match at all in 5-10 years would be in a position to make or even comment on such a comparison.
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I meant "physical skills" meaning athleticism, because why use one word when you can use two. I suspect Eaton would be far more capable, not to mention willing, to take all of Scott's big bombs which require quite a lot from the recipient. Spinebuster notwithstanding, Eaton had more "cool" offense meaning he could match Scott bomb for bomb. To get all JR on us, Eaton and Scott are both Chip Kelly spread, high-scoring offenses. Arn is in fantastic shape but is all about Jim Tressel ball control, controlling the tempo and capitalizing on mistakes. He's a good bumper and seller but not good enough to be taking all of Scott's suplexes and powerbombs, and he's good on offense but not as impressive as Scott. None of this is to say that Scott is a superior worker to Arn. Just talking about "stuff" that each guy can do.
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The more parity-centric NJPW booking probably has a lot to do with that--watching this, any guy could have conceivably pinned any other, which is just something you didn't get with most AJPW tags especially at this time. Great desperation performance from Hase at the end is what really stuck out.
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I don't really know what Liger's current physical or mental state is, but if he's presumably not a drooling amoeba, then he has to have had one of the better aging curves in the history of wrestling, honestly. This was kind of fun, and to his credit Benoit does make a few token attempts to work the crowd, Liger, and the referee with some mannerisms here. But yeah, this was basically worked in a bubble and parts of it looked rather routine. Comparing and contrasting with the Honaga series would be Exhibit A in psychology and presentation over athleticism and hot moves in wrestling. Honaga was a low man on the juniors totem pole and barely even looked like an athlete, but he was a great foil for Liger and the matches were filled with pure desperation from both sides--Honaga because he was physically overmatched and Liger because he just couldn't find a way to beat the fucker. Benoit is a great pure athlete obsessively jacked to the gills here...but he's just a dude in a mask arbitrarily putting it on the line.
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There was a brief taste of that in the '88 Survivor Series match. They had one and only one straight tag match as well, at a house show in Columbus, OH that I've long been racking my brain trying to remember if I went to or not. I guess the fact that I can't remember indicates that it wasn't overly special.
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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6lrdi_an...rt#.UWuJ67WceDg - Here's the announcement. As a consequence of said announcement, Flair is out of WarGames and Sullivan is in, according to the camera guys. I dreaded having to hear them talk throughout this whole match but I actually found them pretty entertaining. Even if there was a smarkish tone these guys were clearly devoted fans. The work throughout is pretty house-showy and half-speed. The highlight may have been Sullivan going nuts with the ring bell hammer, including whacking the Yellow Dog right in the groin with it. The heels in general are much higher-energy, even Nikita. Fairly tepid Match Beyond that nonetheless has some good heat to it. Gigante kicks powder into Sullivan's face and claws him into submission, a finish that I think you could have predicted before the match started.
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I was stunned by how much I enjoyed this. In particular I really liked the Undertaker's failed sit-up after the third piledriver, only to sit up for real just as Warrior was about to drop with the splash. The "near-fall" as Warrior came close to being zipped up was also well-done, and we even had some bodybag psychology with Warrior zipping up Undertaker's head and torso first, the opposite of what Undertaker did. Then the cool visual of the bodybag sitting up and Undertaker storming out looking none the worse for wear. Warrior's piledrivers actually looked pretty good. The only big negative was UT delivering possible the worst tombstone of his life. No one's going to confuse this with 6/3/94 but this was as good of a match between these two workers, in this gimmick, as you could expect. Two larger-than-life characters in a comic book battle that's action most of the way, with a decisive finish. This was one of the few North American programs of 1991 that was actually doing good box-office and we can see why.
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I object to Beefcake's line of questioning--he was clearly leading the witness. Savage is incredible even when all he's saying is "YES!" Savage is going to propose to Elizabeth this weekend on television, and if she says yes it's going to be in MSG at SummerSlam.
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These cards are lost on me, though as an obsessive collecting sort I'd have likely been all over these if I'd known of them. The production on PN News' video actually isn't terrible, but wow...on the soulness scale he makes Michael Bolton sound like DMX.
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