PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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This was a lot of fun, basically what you'd want out of a quasi-dream match. There were some surprisingly stiff chair shots during and after this, Hogan re-opens his WM7 cut, and even Hawk lets the juice flow in what I think is the first time I've ever seen in a Roadies match. We also get an awesome spot near the top with both Road Warriors doing press slams--Animal's gorilla press of Hogan was particularly impressive. Didn't notice much in the way of my turn/your turn--both Hogan and Tenryu worked what amounted to FIP segments with hope spots and cut-offs and all of that. Hawk breaks up a legdrop and Hogan breaks up a Doomsday Device and the action spills to the outside, where the Roadies level Hogan & Tenryu with chairs and just beat the count back in. Not really an ideal finish for a Dome show main event, but there's a heated post-match confrontation that makes you want to see a rematch that sadly never comes. This really felt like a career performance for both Hogan and Hawk. Probably Animal too, but Hawk struck me as the more impressive guy on his team.
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It's crazy that this match took place on a card with WWF talent. Normally stand-ups and resets in UWF-style are what cause me to tune out, but here the stand-up portions were the best part of the match while the matwork portions were good but tended to be overlong. The hard palm strikes and kicks at the end were awesome, and Funaki weathers a "near-fall" to come back and drop Sano with a suplex and cross armbreaker, and the PWFG guys have a big celebration, getting what I guess is considered an upset victory in an interpromotional match. That made for a cool moment.
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This is a "Street Fight"--not simply no-DQ there-must-be-a-winner as Embry/Dundee was. So the weapons confiscation and rules enforcement makes even less sense. Jarrett's comeback upon grabbing the kendo stick is pretty great, but he gets to use weapons with impunity while Paul Neighbors steps in when Prichard goes for his chain, allowing Jarrett to roll him up for the pin. Great impartial officiating. Jarrett gets hanged with the chain afterward in what should be a hot angle that doesn't seem to garner much heat. There still aren't a lot of people left in the Sportatorium and those that remain may just be burnt out on angles like this.
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As per custom Memphis/Texas tended to rush through stips to the point where they didn't have much meaning. Michael St. John makes sure to point out that the "best fans in the world" are in the Metroplex area--could we have a double agent in our midst in this Texas vs. Tennessee feud??? Sweet Georgia Brown shows up...and turns heel(?) to help Embry win the Texas title and retain his hair.
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According to Meltzer what killed New Orleans was JYD dropping the North American title to Mr. Wrestling II. II was coming off a hot heel turn on Magnum but was still perceived as being an old man (which he was)--the live fans didn't seem to pick up on the fact that II had loaded his kneepad, and when it put JYD down fans were convinced that he had "taken a dive" in the sleaziest, most fixed-boxing-match way possible.
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It has to be hard for Tsuruta to work a "great" match when Cactus' offense is still pretty pitiful--by any standard, not just All-Japan. Those are some Zeus-quality forearm shots there, and Foley does one of the world's weakest backbreakers on the outside. The hipbuster elbow does look good and it's the only offensive move of Cactus' to draw a pop, so there's that. I dunno, that backdrop suplex seemed like a desperation move Jumbo pulled out of his rear, so the fact that it didn't lead directly to the finish was okay with me. Considering where Cactus was on the '90 yearbook I didn't think this was too bad. It certainly would have been bad if it had gone much longer, though.
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Hogan is much more tolerable in this interview. Oh, here's the Prime Time attack. Not an angle of the century or anything but Adnan shoving the WWF title belt in Hogan's face as he's in the camel clutch was an effective visual. Adnan had two badly blown spots here--first he grabs Hogan's leg early as he's on the second rope, which messes up the timing of that spot before he grabs it properly when Hogan goes back up. Then that shit where Slaughter has him pinned. Immediately after that Sarge brains Hulk with a chair and clearly that was supposed to be the distraction. This is another standout performance from Slaughter himself, especially his early bumping and his actually living up to his promise of trying to get DQ'd or counted out, which was a smart touch. I also liked the set-up for the Iraqi flag burial, with Hogan powering out of the camel clutch but Slaughter countering Hogan's counter. I think I liked this better than the Rumble match, and despite all the icky build-up it really does somehow feel "right again" when Hogan regains the title--there's no feeling of a reset button being pushed, even though that's exactly what they did.
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DiBiase is just the most gigantic prick ever, beating up a crippled Piper. He gets counted out because of it, but Piper and Virgil get laid out afterward as Sherri makes a very quick career recovery. Virgil exhorts Piper to get up literally, the same way Piper did to him figuratively. Nice touch though the impact is definitely is dissipated considering what just took place earlier in the card.
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Those of you who feel like they missed out on Savage's first Royal Rumble attack, fear not: it's included in the video package, complete with one of my favorite moments ever: the light fixture shot. Not much else to add here. I'll just point out that we have a ton of obvious nods to history in the post-match, but one during the match that I'd forgotten was Savage draping Warrior's throat over the guardrail, with Heenan pointing out that this is something he's done before. That's SUCH a great little touch, a desperation gambit from Savage that he hadn't unleashed in four years, that longtime fans would have picked up on that adds a little bit of spice to an already-transcendent whole. One of wrestling's absolute best chill scenes. I should be annoyed by Heenan shitting all over the reunion and pointing out how this wasn't the time for him to be cracking jokes, but like the possible mechanical flaws in the match that's meaningless. His curt response, "I'd rather have the match" is one of my all-time favorite Bobby quotes, that just sort sums up who the Brain was.
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What a creative audience-participation-style match. Jake did a really great job of getting that aspect over on Prime Time and it works here. There's probably a little too much pointing and near misses here, but Martel provides some amusing comedy spots to show how out of his element he is. Scott Keith and other people who only rate matches based on how many power bomb variations are in it have always held this up as a worst-match-ever candidate, but it's a satisfying payoff to a surprisingly intense feud. Afterwards Marla Maples disappears in a crowd of Jimmy Hart proteges as the Nasty Boys celebrate their tag title win as only they can do.
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Really great closing stretch--all the Neidhart-vs.-Nasties stuff should be a trainwreck but it's just as good as when Bret's in, or better. A motorcycle helmet to the back of the Anvil's head nets the Nasties the tag titles, I guess to justify their contracts. At the time I thought it was a foregone conclusion that the titles were changing here and that they'd then be on their way to the LOD. But when Monsoon talks about the crowd being in shock, that definitely is the vibe that comes off--I really think this result blindsided them.
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Good way to kick off the show. Haku & Barb don't quite come off as impressively as I'd like for this to be a real hidden gem on the level of that POP match we keep coming back to, but there are some great spots here that build off one another--like the assisted huracanrana that gets turned into a neat assisted stungun when the Rockers try it a second time. This is an absolutely jacked crowd, at least until the rapidfire oh-shit-we're-behind-schedule matches later on. That's not always the case with LA crowds but it's greatly appreciated here.
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Ever since Sarge's Iraq alliance reached a breaking point shortly before the Royal Rumble and he switched to the "Slaughter Rules" bit, it's been Hogan who's been constantly invoking war metaphors, the troops, and the flag, which makes this stuff self-aggrandizing even by Hulk's standards. ALL DEAD SOLDIERS ARE HULKAMANIACS--holy mother of God, this is insane. Hogan promises to bring the WWF Title to the sky with him so these casualties can wrestle him for the WWF title. I will never, ever complain about hearing God Bless America during a baseball game again. That little piece of show-off jingoism is subtle and understated compared to this. This was beyond words--probably worse than any WM6 promo. I think being content to rid the WWF of Sgt. Slaughter's reign of terror would have worked as a hook just fine, Hulk.
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Simmons plays a brick wall and has some cool counter-spots of his own in addition to the selling and bumping from Rogers. He does come off as a future star here and there's big heat for the Reed run-in at the end. I guess things were up in the air as to whether Reed would stay in WCW at all or go back to rodeo--Meltzer reported a few times that Reed was out-and-out gone. Maybe WCW actually had an excuse for the tepid, stop-start nature of this feud.
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Incredible Flair promo where he calls out Sting for not believing himself as the Man the way Flair does, and did even after losing the title. Are there any handhelds of these Flair/Sting/Gigante cage matches?
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Dundee doesn't come off as particularly sympathetic here, cutting a promo on Jamie like he's any other opponent. Coal miner's glove match this coming Monday at the Not-MSC. DID YOU KNOW Bill Dundee has never lost a pole match?
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DID YOU KNOW? Memphis Wrestling on WMC is the longest-running 90-minute weekly locally produced original-content episodic television entertainment show to have its 400th episode air in 1991?? More episodes than I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, The Simpsons, Meet the Press, Cheers, the entire CSI franchise, and Turn-On combined.
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