PeteF3
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Everything posted by PeteF3
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I thought I was going nuts until I got to OJ's recap...because all I saw was a MOTYC. Not THE Match of the Year, maybe, but on the short list. Maybe because this is easily the most "American" lucha match of the set, but this is definitely an argument for a well-laid-out match trumping High-End MOVEZ. I know Rayo's rep as a respectable worker is pretty much nil but he seems to bring it in the right settings. He's not a great seller or bumper but he and Caras know how to pace a match and his headbutt-centric offense is just fine. Plus Caras is just such a gigantic cocksucker doing the Tully Blanchard strut after El Kabong-ing him to start the match that the selling is really secondary. Each Rayo comeback feels like an enormous feat of endurance while Caras gets some nice cut-offs of his own in the third fall. A psychotic crowd helped, too--evidence for a crowd possibly elevating a good match to greatness. The post-match just adds to the atmosphere with Caras throwing a tantrum over the result and being swarmed by both fans and photographers trying to get the first glimpse of his real face. -
I pick up "Konnan no necesita compañeros" so apparently they're trying to push him as a loner/tweener. There are a lot of overlapping storylines going on here, with Konnan refusing to take part in any brawling/heeling, more of the Aguayo/Mendoza feud, and more of the Lizmark/Blondy feud getting the most air time. We also get more of the "What the fuck happened to him?" mat-wrestler Konnan in the beginning. The tecnicos take this in two straight, as well they should considering it was basically 3-on-2.
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Dusty is bedecked in a polka-dotted jazz funeral outfit. Spectacular. They actually give Dusty time here, instead of a quick soundbite smothered with canned noise. "You have paid the price for Dusty Rhodes, and that price is gonna be...that PRICE is gonna be...THAT PRICE IS GONNA BE PURE, HELL BAY-BEE." Every bit as good as "It's gonna be SHAAAMEFUL" from when Baby Doll turned on him. The storyline isn't much but Dusty's mouth can carry just about anything.
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Well-done locker room confrontation though this is a pretty contrived storyline, one step above "two guys meet in the aisleway" when it comes to generic feud set-ups. Good promo from Theodore. Flair says that tag team wrestling has never been his forte, even though he's been a multi-time NWA World Tag Champion. This really feels like a demotion for Flair rather than an elevation for Doom.
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Role reversal time from the first meeting, as Gilbert is in full Memphis heel mode and Cactus is working babyface. Long, not particularly interesting legwork by Cactus after an interesting transition that may have been improvised for all I know. Cactus seems to take the BO-RING chants to heart because then we almost immediately get the Cactus Clothesline and a fight on the floor. We go back and forth with some good offense from Gilbert along with some awkward spots before Gilbert wins refreshingly clean with the Hotshot. These guys have good chemistry but yeah, the TV match was better and I suspect there are better matches to come.
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"HA HA HA HA! You ALWAYS have a rush when these guys are around!" Vince, for all of his promoting prowess, really had no clue how to get these guys over properly. This is mostly a good promo (especially from Hawk, naturally) but there's that glad-handing with the Hart Foundation and sticking up for the "Little Doomers" and questioning the Demos as role models that brings it all down. Hawk saves this again afterward.
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Not a great match--at times, even though I understood the storyline, it was frankly a bit of a mess--but an interesting look at what the heavyweights were doing in lucha at the time. Konnan surprises me by taking it to the mat with Mascara 2000 and looking good doing it, then doing a heel turn almost immediately afterward. He just stands on the apron for the first fall, posing or walking off when his teammates ask for a tag, and eventually the rudos are disqualified for the continued 3-on-2 attack and Perro leveling Mendoza with a piledriver just to be a dick. The beatdowns go on afterward with Konnan actively working with the rudos, and Rayo is eventually beaten down into defeat. The attack continues after the match and after looking like cowards in the opening portion the rudos are standing dominant.
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The Brazos completely dominate the first fall, with Super Porky's big fat plancha off the apron being the highlight. The tecnicos come back in the second fall with a fun little Eddy vs. Brazo de Plata face-off that ends with Eddy getting in a bodyslam on Porky and selling it like the most monumental feat of strength in lucha history. More of the same in the third fall as the Brazos rather seamlessly move from being big, bruising bully rudos to comedic ones. El Brazo gets eliminated in the third fall but comes back in to interfere, getting the match thrown out for the DQ. Everyone looks good here but Porky is actually the guy who impressed me the most. Few things are more appealing to me than a big fat bump machine and Plata more than delivers.
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This is worked very on-the-level for the first several minutes, which just adds to the effect of the big left turn this match takes when Hase gets busted open on the outside. Hase does a fantastic loss-of-blood sell but won't stay down, then makes a pretty amazing comeback with some hot near-falls of his own. Muta finally has enough after eating an exploder suplex, and we get the Mr. Fuji/Rick Martel finish with the green mist replacing salt as Hase flies off the top turnbuckle. That pisses off the crowd something fierce, and then Muta throws the referee out of the ring and pulls out a stretcher from underneath and goes to town on Hase with it, finally drawing the DQ. One could question New Japan booking a CO and DQ finish for each of the two big matches on this show at this point in puroresu history, but both finishes are effective in their own way. Great stuff. Maybe the only thing holding it back from MOTYC territory was some of that "more distracted than hurt" selling that Mutoh would make an artform out of.
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This had some good stuff that made me primed to see another match between the two--despite, or even because of, Hashimoto's rather cheap victory. Somehow this worked for me a lot more than the non-pinfall in the SWS match. Seeing Hash and Vader whale away on each other sounds like something I could watch all day.
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This could have been really good if it were anybody else besides Takagi, who I thought was a complete millstone. And that's disappointing because he looked really promising in his one All-Japan '80s set match. I didn't get a single shred of sympathy, or toughness, or comeback ability, or much of anything as Tenryu and Ishikawa kicked away at him for what seemed like 3 hours. It was just Hiroshi Wajima "lay there and get hit" bullshit to me and doesn't come off as any more impressive here than there. Yatsu goes absolutely nuts in what's definitely the high point of the match, tackling Tenryu out of the ring and dropping a row of chairs on him. Then he obediently goes back to his corner and stands there for the rest of the match even as they continue to work over Takagi. Takagi gets counted out in the corner and the crowd is NOT happy with that result, even though it comes off as rather decisive. I get that a new promotion would want to impart its own style and not come off as an imitator of either of the other two men's promotions but I found this to be an inauspicious start. And yeah--that announcing was real, real distracting at times, with the bizarre English statements like how the temperature must be over 40 degrees, and "Rock and roll!" That the guy's English pronunciation was pretty good just made it even more jarring.
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USWA-TX had the most hilarious misnomers for jobber names. "Skull Jones" should not have a hi-top fade. Really boring squash that's saved by Austin, Jeannie, and Pringle. Almost everyone involved almost gets a haircut and it'd be interesting to see if this built to a legitimate head-shaving payoff. But we'll never know. This wasn't one of the top segments of the feud but this promotion will be missed. Looking forward to the 1991 stuff.
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An impeccably dressed Jeff Jarrett recounts the singed flesh falling from his face as a result of Akbar's fireball. Devastation, Inc. corners Jarrett in the corner but take their sweet time getting started on the beatdown, allowing Kamala time to come in for the save. Interesting to see that Kamala was utilized as a babyface before the YOU ARE A MAN stuff. There was potential in such a character, especially in this setting without the heavy-handedness of the WWF or Kamala being portrayed as a retard in the most literal sense of the term. Jarrett has been taught by Lawler how to throw fire!
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They really needed a definitive resolution in mind to start the angle, but it comes off as though they're winging it. The Scorpion is constructing a gift for Sting. LOS ANGELES...'86...ON THE BEACH. THINK ABOUT IT. Pay close enough attention to this one and you can clearly make out Ole's Minnesota accent through the distortion.
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Gilbert is banned from the studio as a result of what happened in Missouri, so he hijacks his own interview time by taking out both Frazier and Nightstalker. Gilbert gets some SERIOUS heat when he proclaims himself the New King. Sam Lowe has now redubbed himself Sam Bass in a sort of twisted tribute to Lawler's first (and deceased) manager.
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Dundee hypes a tag match against Gilbert & Anthony. Lawler comes out to introduce MSC highlights of him vs. Gilbert in an Ambulance Match. Why even have a referee in this match? Oh, so he can get bumped, so Sam Lowe can interfere...legally? Gilbert accidentally gets sprayed in the eyes, which is enough to require a stretcher and ambulance to end the match. The next few nights, the scheduled Lawler/Gilbert match doesn't take place as Gilbert is still blinded, so Doug Gilbert has to take his place for a spot show in Missouri. This is all set up masterfully, as Jerry Calhoun was injured in the previous match and thus Buddy Wayne's son Greg steps in as an emergency replacement. Wayne won't count a pinfall and Eddie does a Sandman and rips the glasses and bandages off to attack Lawler. Lawler makes a masterful comparison to obsessed Hollywood stalker fans, as Gilbert tries to re-break the leg that Lawler broke years ago and was injured by the car. Downtown Bruno and his gang are barricading the babyface locker room door, but intentionally let Brickhouse Brown through so the Dirty White Boy can attack him and hang him with a fucking NOOSE. Distasteful as it is, that's a very clever plan. Jerry Calhoun tries to intervene and gets decked by Greg Wayne, Eddie Marlin tries to intervene and gets decked by Buddy Wayne. A fantastic, chaotic scene and Eddie really is put over as a diabolical schemer.