PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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Lawler is back out--he would have expected Cornette to be a sellout but expresses disappointment with the Fabulous Ones apparently not having any pride of their own. Lawler & Dundee vs. the Fabs for Monday. I guess at this point they felt they couldn't run a MSC show without Lawler on the bill, but yeah, you'd think they could have the Fabs go over a team like Dundee & Davis first. A great promo, though. -
The Fabs make a show of watching Jerry Lawler's back during an interview, only for Cornette to clobber Lawler with the racket and the Fabs drop him with a spike piledriver on the floor. Cornette calls "Terry" on his portable phone and informs him that he's "2 for 2"--they ran Eddie Gilbert off and just broke Lawler. Cornette reveals the master plan: they couldn't collect the bounty on Lawler by going after him head-to-head and there was a chance that the Memphis Mafia could collect it first, so they earned Lawler's trust and thwarted the Mafia before making their move. Eddie Marlin comes out to get in Cornette's face and this face-off is as great as one would expect. The Fabs vs. Lawler and a partner is more or less signed for Monday night.
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Iraq had a deadline of 1/15 to withdraw from Kuwait before the UN Coalition went to combat. The WWF touches on this...for the sole purpose of setting up a Sgt. Slaughter promo saying most of the same stuff as before about standing side-by-side with President Hussein. The U.S. on the verge of war is basically being treated the same way as a WWF title match. I think it's possible to incorporate current events into a wrestling angle in a reasonable, if not necessarily tasteful, way. But it needed something besides the WWF's hamhanded, sledgehammer of plot approach.
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I know I wasn't that high on the chain match, but the grittiness and intensity and atmosphere there was undeniable. The weapons-fest that this descends into felt about as gritty and intense as an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show. I don't know how else to describe people flinging around oversized nunchuks and bamboo sticks the size of telephone poles (while laying the shots in as lightly as possible because they're too heavy to do anything else with). One of the apparent stablemates standing by with a frigging hockey stick (always a big draw in Japan) just added untintentional humor that this match was desperately trying to avoid. Kyoko also blows every big spot she tries--she airballs on the Tenryu reverse elbow, almost kills herself doing a plancha, almost Hayabusas herself trying to do a springboard something-or-other, and the leapfrog-Bull-into-a-corner-kick spot was a neat idea but looked like she did as much damage to herself as to the opponent. So, all that shit needed to go away. And it did (except for Inoue), and we got back to an actual wrestling match with a pretty good build to the ending. I liked Nakano & Inoue's counter to the double-Irish-whip spot a lot, and it was a good way to get Aja out of the picture and leave Bison alone against both opponents, which spells doom. The contrasting images of Bison on the chair in despair and Aja stewing stoically is pretty great. But this was yet another joshi match that, even for a big stipulation blowoff type match, crammed more into it than the match needed. Maybe Toyota and Hokuto could have given them some pointers on how less is more.
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Toyota junks the rapidfire style due to Hokuto coming out with a giant cast and splint on her arm. That lasts for about a minute and a half before Toyota rips it off (and emphatically breaks the splint over her knee just to drive the point home) and Hokuto basically has to resort to nothing but dives and high-risk moves because her arm won't let her do anything else. She gets a slight opening when Toyota buggers her leg on a dive (irony!) She kicks out of a few big Toyota moves but misses one last go-for-broke somersault. Toyota wraps her back up in an armbar and we get a submission. That's absolutely the right finish but color me surprised to see a joshi title match end on a tapout. Great different dimension from Toyota here--I wish we'd gotten this Toyota when she first met Hokuto after the big leg injury. So far January '91 has been on fire from pretty much every promotion imaginable.
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Fujinami seems like he's aged quite a bit since we last saw him at the end of '89, and he's clearly not back in prime shape yet. Fujinami clearly isn't on the level of his '80s best but this is a pretty good fight that fits in well thematically with the Texas stuff we've just been watching. Vader gets a cut in the eye again but manages to come back with a lariat and splash to win the IWGP Heavyweight title. I can get on board with Fujinami maniacally throwing punches at a cut if he can't do the chain wrestling and dives he used to do.
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Okerlund implies that Hussein was on WWF TV giving those boots to Slaughter. Warrior talks of hourglasses and...for fuck's sake...minefields. The invasion of Kuwait and war in the Middle East is only serving as a basis for wrestling metaphors. Absolutely no one in this company seems to have any clue of what's actually happening in the real world. That's not even necessarily a problem, but then leave the fucking real world out of things.
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Total war, with Funk throwing more incredible punches and both guys flinging themselves into the ringside table and posts, and Lawler breaking a particle board over Funk's head which makes a lovely popping sound. This is one of the stiffest matches in the history of a building that, while it's had a multitude of frenzied brawls, I don't really think of as a house of stiffness. Funk clotheslines Tony Falk and that draws a DQ. Sort of an '80s Japan structure where guys use weapons with impunity but abusing a ref ends the match. I'm just fine with that.
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USWA-Texas, how I've missed you! Redman Tobacco has seized control of the lucrative sponsorship contract from Renegades Rampage, but otherwise it's the same Sportatorium we know and love. Except the crowd is hotter than it's been since the Von Erichs' heyday. This is surprisingly matwork-based which is not only really well-done but the work pays off big-time throughout the match--Gilbert has a hurt arm, Jarrett has a hurt leg. Fantastic work in the figure-four with Gilbert using Jarrett's boot laces for leverage. After James Beard gets bumped, Gilbert pulls a chain from under his towel, but Jarrett gets it and uses it for the apparent pin. Unfortunately he makes the same mistake he made against Jerry Lawler and gets caught with it again, and the Southern title goes back to Gilbert. What I love about Gilbert is that he wrestles mostly on the level and only cheats either incrementally to gain a slight advantage--and just enough for you to notice--or at the very end. His heeling here amounts to a few closed fists and the work with the bootlaces, while the chain doesn't make an appearance until the finish. It's what separates Lawler the heel from Ric Flair the heel, and what separates Gilbert as well. This really does seem like an exciting time to be a USWA fan, as there's more energy in the Sportatorium than in a long time with grandiose plans being tossed about in the sheets by Pedicino. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
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This was a fairly gallant attempt at breaking into the NYC market, with the biggest football name yet, but this kind of thing probably should have been best-served on the NY edition of Pro instead of on TBS. I'm not sure Dangerously being in Big Cat's corner was ever really explained in a kayfabe way.
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Great stuff on the floor--I'm a sucker for actual wrestling moved and spots being done outside the ring. We have that and a strong finishing sequence, with Pillman cleverly getting Rogers to duck a move from the top, opening him up for a sunset flip. That said, this official (whom I've never seen) completely fucks over the 5-minute stip by counting every pinfall and ruining whatever they were trying to build to. Ross plugs the WCW SEXY WRESTLER CONTEST after this. Z-Man won (spoiler).
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They actually acknowledge the Hogan-Warrior showdown from the year before. I remember them showing the Ax-Smash showdown from '89 multiple times, usually at the first Rumble report of the year. Love confronts Hogan with the possibility of Hulk having to face Earthquake & Bravo 2-on-1, and then facing Tugboat. Hogan cuts a similar promo to last January, wanting to be #1 so he can go through the whole field.
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Royal Rumble is gonna be a NON-TITLE MATCH, OOOOOOH YEAH. Warrior is interviewed in the locker room by Okerlund in a...normal (!!!) setting. Despite the valiant attempt and focused promo, Warrior is back to being a raving loon. I EXPECT NOTHING LESS FROM YOU SGT. SLAUGHTER AND THE IRAQIS THAT FOLLOW YOU THAN TOTAL SURRENDERRRRR. *snort*
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Very good closing stretch and they were able to at least hold my attention the whole way through. The final near-fall right at the bell was well-timed too, which you don't always see. Too long for its own good, as Kawada-Kobashi was some months earlier, but an interesting look at a mid-card joshi match for the era.
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I do kind of wish the matwork had come at the beginning, but from that point on this was gold. None of Bull's tendencies that annoyed me in 1990 were on display here and all the big moves were given time to breathe. The interference was completely superfluous but at least it was quick, and the moves and near-falls down the stretch were top-notch. I suppose Hokuto surviving the Guillotine Legdrop, a second-rope tombstone, and a power bomb only to fall to a bridge suplex may have been a tad weak, but I kind of liked Nakano winning on what was essentially the joshi version of a flash pin. This honestly did a lot more for Hokuto than the cage matches did for Aja.
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This came across as very U.S.-like babyface vs. heel, actually. Kobashi is actively trying to avoid wrestling at Hansen's level (not just because he's a "good guy" but because that's basically suicidal), so we get Hansen swinging chairs like a maniac while Kobashi works the arm. The result is inevitable but Kobashi gets to show off quite a lot here.
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Well, I thought this was ultimately underwhelming. The setting is probably the grittiest in the history of wrestling between the torn-up ring, chains, lighting, and blood. And there were some great spots here--the dive, both guys tumbling over the top rope to the floor, and I-forget-who getting slung into the seats. But there was a lot of dead time and it took a long while to get going. I also thought a lot of the strikes were bad--and that was doubly disappointing because I know Fiera knows how to pound the shit out of somebody and Estrada seems like a guy willing to oblige him. Then the sheer WTF-ness of the ending...I'm not opposed to a double-KO but the referee suddenly deciding to officiate this like an Olympic match (topical!) with a 1-count finish was too fucking much.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Roberto Rojas.