PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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This is supposed to be a Southern title match but Gilbert refuses to put the title up on free TV. There's a $10-to-$50,000 bounty on Jerry Lawler's head from a mysterious source, depending on how much damage is done to him. Bruno has some pretty good lines on commentary--Dave Brown suspects that the man behind the bounty is on screen now and Bruno chastises him for suggesting that Jerry Calhoun would be the man. Lots and LOTS of stalling here but it's well-done and the crowd is way into it. Some great hide-the-chain work from Eddie until Lawler blocks a shot, uses the chain himself, and is about to get a win when the Memphis Mafia rather predictably hits the ring. STEVE KEIRN is quickly out to make the save, with a chair with "THE FABS" painted on it. The plot thickens.
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Why would any babyface ever agree to go on the Brother Love Show? Love is still pushing that DiBiase is his benefactor, which is a nice touch of continuity (DiBiase was one of the first guests of the show and revealed he was paying for its airtime). Now that DiBiase has failed to put Dustin away in 10 minutes, he's here to make Dustin an offer. DiBiase's excuses ("I wasn't really trying as hard as I could") are pretty funny. DiBiase tosses insults to all of Texas as well as Virgil. Dustin slaps the money away and gets double-teamed for his trouble. Kerry Von Erich makes the save--he's a Texan too, and damn proud of it. Strong segment. This felt very Memphisy with buyout offers and multiple storylines being juggled at once--DiBiase is literally pushing three different feuds here, just as he was pushing two separate feuds at the start of the year. It's quite non-WWF-style booking and could be an indication of how trusted DiBiase was to handle all of this.
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I dug Hansen & Spivey's tag title win from '91, but other than that this is not a match-up that I've ever found to be all that compelling or something to really look forward to. So, seeing the comments here I cheated and skipped to Williams throwing rapidfire dropkicks at people. There isn't a whole lot to this even during the closing stretch. The finish is a very clever idea but isn't executed very well, between Hansen's half-assed lariat that's practically no-sold to the bell ringing early. Benoit and Scorpio would pull off the pinfall-with-one-second-left thing better.
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This may be a dumb question but a.m. or p.m.?
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Kawada vs. Taue takes center stage here in a great little preview of what's to come between the two in '91. Kawada was still quite junior-y at the start of the year but is now pretty firmly entrenched as Misawa's #2. Misawa, Kobashi, and Kawada were all nowhere near ready to be promotional anchors at the start of the year and here they are at the end being their familiar '90s selves. I'm surprised at how hard the Misawa group was pushed in 1990--I guess they needed it, but it seems like most of the big matches against Tsuruta's team end with the young guys victorious.
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I can only add that I too was a lucha novice going into the Yearbook set--read about it, seen a few random bouts, that was it. I think I've taken to it like a fish to water, frankly. I love the technical stuff, love the brawls, and think Rayo vs. Caras is a low-level MOTYC and that's pretty much a "sports entertainment" match in every way. But...there are some really, really angle-heavy trios bouts on that set that can be confusing as heck, with multiple partners turning on each other. Also in general it seems like Satanico and El Dandy have turned technico and rudo multiple times in the span of 10 months. That makes me wary of even asking for background because I wouldn't expect even the most hardcore lucha fan to keep track of all that as frequently as it seems to happen. I read Spanish a whole lot better than I can listen to it, which makes me wish that CMLL TV was close-captioned to explain some of this.
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Pretty telling that Windham is now inserted into this angle. Arn cuts a fired-up money promo. Ric Flair's face showing up on milk cartons has all the potential in the world, but on one hand it wouldn't neatly tie in with the Scorpion angle--it would make it seem like Long & Doom were in on it which I don't think should be the effect. ("So Peter, why not have ANYONE ELSE as the Black Scorpion?" Be quiet). Someone with more time on their hands than I needs to re-cut Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" video with pictures and dates for Flair, the Clash XIII fan who got turned into a leopard, and the handcuffed Bobby Heenan.
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AWESOME segment on all levels. Flair as the talker, Long as the disgruntled passive-aggressive driver (with the do-rag still under the chauffeur's cap), Long trying to hide his face from other drivers...and then a total left turn when Long engineers a kidnapping! Doom show up, Long cuts a quick but awesome promo for Starrcade, and they make off with the Horsemen limo! This is seriously one of the 2 or 3 best WCW angles of the year. Entertaining as hell but it also pushes Long and Doom hard, as the Godfather outdoes Flair and the Horsemen at their own game.
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Rotunda turns down a children's charity request from a "Mr. Finkle in New York." Wallstreet has an all-seeing video monitor board consisting of stock tickers and activity as well as WCW wrestling (and, later, a Lou Holtz press conference). Oh yes. Then he stops to cut a promo on us, the viewer, while Ms. York takes notes. They don't even hide the fact that this guy is a Gordon Gekko ripoff as he straight-up lifts the catchphrase from Wall Street. York punches a few keys on multiple keyboards after being given the name "Lex Luger" and prints out a single sheet that's a perfect plan to defeat him. Random bar graphs and charts are present for verisimilitude, while a Jimmy Hart-esque knockoff of the Superman theme plays. Cheesy as all hell but oh so much fun. I don't know what separated this from WCW's other '90s attempts at sports entertainment--it could be Rotunda's commitment to the role, the fact that this apparently isn't far off from the way Rotunda is in real life, or the fact that this gimmick was the suggestion of one Tony Schiavone. This makes one nostalgic for the days when portable phones and computers could double as deadly weapons.
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I know he had appearances for PWFG and Michinoku Pro but my only knowledge of Wilkins is as a WWF TV jobber with Vince audibly recoiling in disgust when he heard his name announced. I find it rather amusing that he turned out to be an accomplished shoot-style guy. I can see why Wilkins would be a divisive guy among other workers--he's clearly an accomplished technician but also seems to be a sandbagger. It doesn't detract from the match i this case as it just makes Kid look like he's got an even bigger hill to climb. Wilkins has some phenomenal takedowns and ghastly-looking holds, while Kid seems to legit knock himself silly on a missed dropkick in a way that goes beyond even Kid's great selling. Some moments that would clearly be finishes in the UWF are holds that the Kid fights through on his way to a 20-minute draw. Announcer calls it a "submission only match" after the fact but the referee was clearly counting pinfalls. Another feather in the cap of the Kid, who looks like the most promising athlete you'll ever see in wrestling for being this much of a pro at age 18. U.S. match of the month, hands down.
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I'll admit, a rogue referee attacking Sting is kind of cool. It's the first single redeeming moment in this entire putrid saga. The babyfaces look like the biggest dumbasses alive, going after the rail-jumpers and completely ignoring the ref choking out Sting. We get Clash footage that I already exhausted everything there is to say about. Then more footage of Scorpion rambling over the PA. Dueling promos. Enough of this already. Sting finally gets around to selling something--either the title changes hands or the Scorpion unmasks. Between WCW and Florida, you could probably fill a full-length "Gordon Solie calls ridiculous shit" comp.
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Good match, but that's sheer lunacy. There was actually more hate and fire to this than in the previous Arn/Taylor match, despite that match's hot start. Some good nutty bumps from Rogers as well as some quality stooging. Taylor had some crisp offense to offer but was more or less along for the ride.
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No, he's conflating Nick Patrick and Mike Atkins (the ref here). Or possibly ESPN announcer Mike Patrick. These WGN editions of Pro are almost the definition of "phoned in." Pity we didn't get Lance & the Freebirds' call of this series. The match itself starts super-hot and sort of bogs down into my turn/your turn stuff, which is a bit of a disappointing contrast to the first two matches which came off as true struggles. And we get a super-lame payoff as Doom ruins things for everybody. Was it that necessary to keep Taylor protected here? Maybe a pinfall job here would have rendered him incompatible with Alexandra York's computerized scouting database.